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PORFIRIO DIAZ 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 



BY 



RAFAEL DE ZAYAS ENRIQUEZ 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK 

1908 



VuORARY of OeNfiR F.«S, 
s 

I wo OODleS KtiCUivoJ 

SEP 18 iyo8 
•2_ \ :m> S'e 

COHY a. 



COPTRIQHT, 1908, BY 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



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^ 



Published September, 1908 



TEANSLATOR'S NOTE 

It may interest the reader to know some- 
thing of the author of this book, and of his 
motive in writing it. Senor de Zayas is the 
Poet Laureate of Mexico, and has written, 
besides poems, a considerable number of his- 
toric and other works. He was educated as a 
lawyer, has been an officer in the army, and is 
now a member of the Mexican Congress. He 
has been a lifelong friend of President Diaz, 
but has lately begun to differ with him on cer- 
tain points regarding the policy of govern- 
ment, as the reader of this book will notice, 
especially in the last chapters. Senor de 
Zayas is an ardent patriot and thoroughly in 
earnest ; he is so desirous that his exact feel- 
ing and opinion should be given to the public, 
that he has gone over with the translator 
every word of the American edition. The 
book consequently represents the author's 



TKANSLATOR'S NOTE 

precise expression down to the turn of a 
phrase and the use of a simile. Though this 
may in some instances detract from the flu- 
ency of the English and not sufficiently take 
into account the difference in taste and habits 
of thought of the American and the Mexican 
public, it has seemed to be of paramount im- 
portance in a book of this kind to reproduce 
faithfully the thought of the author and the 
atmosphere of his country. The chief value 
of such a work is historical, and, as it stands, 
this biography is a page from current his- 
tory, hot from the author's brain, and replete 
with the spirit of Mexico. 

T. QuiNCY Browne, Jr. 

MoRRisTowN School, Morristown, N. J. 
January 15, 1908. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — Preliminary Reflections ...... 1 

II. — ^The Physical and Moral Characteristics op 

President Diaz 18 

III. — Period of Formation ...... 51 

IV. — Period of Development . . ■ . . . 73 

V. — Di'az as a Revolutionary Leader ... 99 

VI. — Diaz as President 128 

VII. — The Re-election op General Diaz . .153 

VIII. — ^Why General Diaz Has Remained in Power 1 72 

IX. — Is General Diaz a Tyrant or a Despot? . 190 

X. — Present Conditions in Mexico . . .217 

XI. — ^The Last Phase of the Evolution op Presi- 
dent Diaz 252 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



TACINO 
PAGE 



Porfirio Diaz in 1907 Frontispiece 

President Dfaz in the Uniform of Major General . . 48 

General Porfirio Dfaz in 1867 134 

Senora Dona Carmen Romero Rubio de Diaz, Wife of 

President Porfirio Diaz 220 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 



CHAPTER I 

PKELIMINARY REFLECTIONS 

TO judge a public man fairly, we must 
consider first of all the objects of his 
ambition, and secondly the means he 
has used to gain these objects; nor should 
we lose sight of the resources at his com- 
mand, the character of his time, and all 
the surrounding conditions. Although in the 
maelstrom of politics the means employed 
may count for little, and only the results be 
considered, it is a very different matter be- 
fore the tribunal of history. There every- 
thing must be examined with the most relent- 
less and impartial scrutiny; the maxim that 
the end justifies the means will not pass mus- 
ter, and only that which is good in purpose, 
as well as good in result, is deemed worthy. 

1 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

When in politics the desired end is ob- 
tained, whether through the use of reprehen- 
sible methods or not, society gladly appro- 
priates the fruits; for the public cannot be 
expected to renounce its blessings, even if 
they come from tainted sources. But the his- 
torian is obliged to analyze men and deeds, 
motives and results; and, although he may 
admire the achievement, he must censure the 
man and never on any account represent him 
as worthy of imitation, under pain of being 
considered an accomplice of evil, without 
gaining the credit of participation in the ad- 
vancement of society. 

There is in the success of genius, however, 
a quality which compels universal admira- 
tion; perhaps because his brilliancy dazzles 
his contemporaries and prevents them from 
seeing his faults. This effect is enhanced by 
the work of the poet, who, carried away by 
his own inspiration, makes a god of his hero, 
presenting him before us endowed with every 
perfection, without weaknesses or doubts, im- 

2 



PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS 

peccable, irresistible, the very incarnation of 
omnipotent will, hallowed by his origin, and 
deserving blind worship for the sake of his 
mission. For this reason Plutarch in his 
celebrated work, entitled " How a Young Man 
Should Listen to Poetry," says, "As long as 
a young man admires only that which poets 
say and do rightly, there will be no ill ef- 
fects ; but if he admires indiscriminately, his 
moral standards will insensibly deteriorate." 
In history, we do not find the material 
necessary for the formation of accurate esti- 
mates of the leaders of humanity, the creators 
of nations, and the real makers of history, be- 
cause historians give greater prominence to 
battles and events than to men, and always 
follow a preconceived and pretentious philos- 
ophy, to which everything is subordinated, 
whether in the name of Providence or Fate, 
Evolution or Chance. In so doing, they fail 
to give due weight to the effect of the per- 
sonality and genius of individuals; forgetful 
of the fact that the true study of mankind is 

3 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

man, and that history represents the eternal 
ebb and flow of the tide of thought and ac- 
tion. History, to be of positive profit, should 
give an insight into the springs of action of 
the great leaders of humanity, such as Moses 
or Christ, Alexander or Caesar, Leo X or 
Luther, Charles V or Philip II, Frederick the 
Great or Napoleon, Richelieu or Voltaire, 
Washington or Benito Juarez. We should 
have placed before us all the resources and 
diflQculties surrounding the life of each, the 
environment which molds from without and 
the character of the man which modifies the 
circumstances from within. For every ac- 
tion, no matter what its nature, is the direct 
result of this double operation of the envi- 
ronment from without and the man from 
within. 

Contrary to the opinion of many note- 
worthy authors, I attach as much importance 
to the hero in a history as I should in a 
dramatic poem; because I believe that his- 
tory, far from being impersonal, is supreme- 

4 



PEELIMINARY REFLECTIONS 

ly personal; each epoch takes the character 
impressed upon it by its greatest figure. For 
this reason, I think that biography is of the 
greatest value ; it really furnishes the key to 
history. It also fills the countless gaps which 
are always apparent when one studies a 
period critically and with a desire to under- 
stand something more than the sequence of 
names, dates, and events. But, in order that 
biography may fulfill this mission, it is neces- 
sary that the biographer should proceed with 
caution, with perfect understanding of causes 
and effects, and with irreproachable impar- 
tiality. This last is a point of honor with 
any one who devotes himself to a work of this 
kind. Still he must not exclude enthusiasm, 
nor, on the other hand, withhold censure 
when it is deserved. 

I believe the old custom of converting one's 
hero into a demigod is as false and pernicious 
as that, which many modern authors follow, 
of undervaluing the subject of their biog- 
raphy to the point of making him common- 

5 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

place and without distinction. I agree with 
Oscar Wilde that " cheap editions of great 
books may be delightful, but cheap editions 
of great men are absolutely detestable." 

Carlyle was right, I think, in saying that 
to form a just estimate of a man one should 
consider first his virtues and afterwards his 
defects. But, admitting, as I am sure we 
must, that every character is made up of a 
mixture of both, to present the former all at 
one time, and the latter, catalogued separate- 
ly, afterwards, would make the work of little 
value to the student. For to him the thing of 
importance is the delineation of the charac- 
ter resulting from the combination of these 
two elements in a human being. Analysis is 
therefore necessary, but only on condition 
that the personality should also be synthetic- 
ally reconstructed. 

If biography is a sea filled with reefs, when 
its subject is a man who from the beginning 
of his career has followed a single course, 

6 



PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS 

consecrated to science or art, or has distin- 
guished himself only as a soldier or as a 
statesman, how much greater is the difficulty, 
when the subject of one's study unites to an 
exceptional degree, as in the case of Porfirio 
Diaz, the traits of both the soldier and the 
statesman; figuring in the history of his 
country as a great military genius, who is at 
the same time and most of all honored as the 
statesman who brought peace and progress 
to his people. In such a case, it is most 
difficult to decide which side of his character 
is most worthy of the admiration and appre- 
ciation of his fellow citizens and of the world. 
And the admiration is so much the more jus- 
tified, when we realize that diametrically op- 
posed, if not mutually exclusive, qualities 
are necessary to create a military genius of 
the first order and a statesman of sufficient 
power to modify the national character and 
establish peace from the very elements which 
he had previously used for carrying on war. 

History furnishes examples of great war- 
2 7 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

riors, who were also great statesmen; we 
must notice, too, that not one of these ever 
made any attempt to bring about peace, or 
had any idea of laying aside the sword, with 
which he had cut his way to power and re- 
nown. Proof of this assertion will be found 
in the cases of Julius Caesar and Napoleon, 
in both of whom we see united the great 
qualities above mentioned. Caesar, who was 
assassinated when at the height of his power 
and glory, was at that very moment planning 
a great expedition against the Parthians, 
counting upon their defeat in order to return 
through Scythia and Germania, and thus ex- 
tend the limits of his empire to the shores 
of the ocean. Napoleon fell in the struggle, 
and died a prisoner. " My power will fall," 
he declared, " unless I maintain it by new 
victories. Conquest has made me what I am 
and conquest must sustain me." Such was 
his profession of faith. Washington was a 
great statesman and a mediocre general. 
Grant was a great general and a mediocre 

8 



PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS 

statesman. But in Porfirio Diaz we find both 
qualities developed to the highest degree. 

In the first part of his career, we see the 
soldier, subordinating everything to the art 
of war, his life devoted exclusively to the tri- 
umph, through arms, of those political prin- 
ciples which he had espoused, and to the 
maintenance of national existence in the 
face of the French invasion. He was the 
most successful and renowned upholder of 
his country's cause on the field of battle. In 
the second part of his career, when he had 
reached the presidency, we find the states- 
man studying the great problems of peace 
and handling them with consummate skill, 
eliminating all seeds of discord, restraining 
unwholesome passions and dangerous im- 
patience, and banishing war, which at that 
time seemed the natural condition of Mexico. 

I believe that this apparent contradiction 
in his career has its logical explanation. 
For, although Porfirio Diaz had from the 
first warlike instincts, a very natural thing 

9 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

in one who was born and brought up in the 
midst of constant political and foreign wars, 
his education fitted him for a civil career, that 
of a lawyer ; furthermore, in his preparation 
for college, he acquired the rudiments of sci- 
ence, which time and experience matured into 
that practical statesmanship which has trans- 
formed Mexico. Thus we see that he was 
well fitted by nature, and well prepared by 
study, for the double role which he was des- 
tined to play. 

Although Porfirio Diaz entered the career 
of arms unexpectedly, he was not a half- 
trained soldier ; he had studied the science of 
war practically, in the field, and was pro- 
moted grade by grade in rapid succession, but 
without any favoritism. He became general 
of a division at the point of the sword; 
through war he also gained reputation and 
popularity, and with his sword, his reputa- 
tion, and his popularity, he won the Presi- 
dency of the Republic. 

Once in that position, he turned his back 
10 



PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS 

upon the past, and concentrated all his power 
upon the study of the present and the mold- 
ing of the future. His motto as a soldier was, 
" Small resources and great effectiveness " ; 
his motto as a statesman was, " Little politics 
and much administration." 

As a military chieftain, on the eve of bat- 
tle, he thought less about what he would do 
after gaining the victory than of what he 
would do in case of defeat. As chief execu- 
tive, on the other hand, he followed exactly 
the opposite principle ; he always made up his 
mind what he would do after he had obtained 
the victory. This seems logical, because, in 
a system that was almost entirely adminis- 
trative, the part played by chance, which cor- 
responds to politics, is almost a negligible 
quantity. 

In waging war, he adopted the principle of 
continually engaging the enemy, without giv- 
ing him respite or repose; and no matter 
what might be the odds against him, he neu- 
tralized them by skill and strategy. 
11 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

In order to insure tranquillity, he followed 
the system of making those who wished to 
disturb the peace powerless and those who 
had the power to do so his friends. 

But that which is sufficient to bring about 
mechanical peace is not sufficient to establish 
organic peace; and the most serious charge 
made against President Diaz is that he did 
not realize this in time ; or that, if he did real- 
ize it, he made no effort to change his method 
of procedure. It has been said by way of ex- 
planation that the indefinite prolongation of 
his power has weakened his judgment, and 
converted into personal ambition the patriot- 
ism, of which he had given such striking 
proofs during the period of his heroic strug- 
gles and during the first three periods of his 
tenure of office. These critics further assert 
that, his only object being to govern as long 
as he lives, he has subordinated all his knowl- 
edge and experience to this ambition, and has 
l^ermitted his admirable policy of national 
education to degenerate into what has been 
12 



PRELIMINAEY EEFLECTIONS 

called "a policy of conciliation" : compromise 
with all parties, in the attempt to convert 
into accomplices both friends and enemies. 

To my way of thinking, there is a differ- 
ent explanation, as I shall show at the proper 
time. For the present, I shall simply say 
that, in general, the foregoing explanation 
wonld conform perfectly with human na- 
ture. When it is apparent that a system is 
producing the desired results, few men dare 
to introduce modifications, either because 
they are restrained by the conservatism, 
which all who govern long acquire, or for fear 
that any innovation may bring about a catas- 
trophe. But, even if we admit that the above 
explanation is the only logical one and main- 
tain that the charge is justified by the facts, 
the fault would lie more with the people than 
with President Diaz ; for, if it be true that he 
has been oblivious of the public, it is equally 
true that the public has been oblivious of 
itself. 

It is said that at this point in his career 
13 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

the last and final evolution of President Diaz 
began, namely, his conversion into a tyrant; 
but those who say this fail to take into ac- 
count the scientific axiom that there is no 
such thing as spontaneous generation, either 
in the natural or the political world. A tyr- 
anny can be only the logical result of a com- 
bination of contributing elements, such as the 
preponderating will of an all-powerful ruler 
and the tacit consent of a public, whose char- 
acter has been gradually weakened, until its 
weakness has degenerated into cowardice. 

If President Diaz has been a tyrant, his 
tyranny has been less the work of the gov- 
ernor than that of the governed. It was for 
their own security that the people of Mexico 
concurred with foreign nations in making his 
tenure of office permanent. 

We have all helped to bring about this pecu- 
liar situation, first by considering President 
Diaz a useful instrument, then a necessity, 
and, finally, a Providential Being. Have we 
not all shamelessly, and without excuses, pro- 
14 



PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS 

claimed him as unique in history, turning 
gratitude into fanaticism, praise into adora- 
tion, and even tried to convince General Diaz 
himself of the truth of these extravagances I 
There never was a man with sufficient 
strength of character or modesty to resist 
for thirty years the skillful flattery, which all, 
through self-interest, have heaped upon him. 
Lack of virility in a people fosters presump- 
tion in its rulers. 

Some one has said, " Happy the nation that 
has no history ! " I say, " Unhappy the na- 
tion that is not making history ! " Because, 
as soon as public interest in politics ends, 
slavery begins. 

In General Diaz we see two men, one a real 
individual, forceful and self-made; the other 
created by the imagination, a figure reared 
by our own flattery and lying, and by the 
money-seeking foreign writers, who know 
neither what Mexico was nor is. These last 
have been courteously received by the Pres- 
15 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

ident and by the officials of the country. They 
have been paid good money for bad informa- 
tion. They have spread broadcast false im- 
pressions about Mexico ! The list of writers 
is long: from Hurbert Howe Bancroft, the 
American historian, to Mrs. Alec Tweedy, an 
English writer. 

The first to discountenance such exaggera- 
tions was General Diaz himself, who well un- 
derstood that publications of this kind would 
in the long run do harm. I think it is now 
high time to destroy the misconceptions, to 
correct the mistakes, and to represent Gen- 
eral Diaz as he is, in his full stature of a 
man, with human passions, and human ac- 
tions; a remarkable character, very re- 
markable, extraordinary, if you are of my 
opinion, but not superhuman, nor infallible. 

I have admired him, followed him, and 
served him. I believe I know him as thor- 
oughly and intimately as it is given one man 
to know another, and I appreciate him at his 
full value. 

16 



PEELIMINARY REFLECTIONS 

In this work, the reader will find a lively 
account of General Diaz, written with scru- 
pulous fidelity to the facts, and without mis- 
representations of any kind. My work is 
neither the work of a partisan, nor that of an 
enemy, but the frank and loyal statement of 
a witness before the Tribunal of History; a 
kind of deposition " ad perpetuum," which I 
wish to bequeath to posterity before death 
claims me. I do not say " surprises me," be- 
cause death could not now surprise me, as 
I have been for some time prepared for its 
summons. 



CHAPTER II 

THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF 
PRESIDENT DIAZ 

ETHNICALLY, Porfirio Diaz is a prod- 
uct of the mingling of the two prin- 
cipal races which inhabit Mexico. In 
his veins there courses the mixed blood of the 
Spaniard and the Indian, as is the case with 
all the men who have distinguished them- 
selves in any career whatsoever in Mexico; 
his character is a combination of the reflect- 
iveness of the " Misteca " and the tenacity 
of the Asturian. 

Men considered eminently practical are 
usually hands without brains, and men called 
idealists are apt to be brains without hands. 
But Diaz, properly speaking, does not belong 
to either of these two classes; for in him 
these qualities are so evenly balanced that 
they offset one another. Furthermore, natu- 
18 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

ral ingenuity and acquired intellectual power 
make up his character in almost equal pro- 
portions. He is a man of definite aims, 
rather than an idealist; a man of action, 
rather than a practical man; and he might 
well say with Napoleon, " My iron hand was 
not placed at the end of my arm, but con- 
nected directly with my brain." 

Diaz first conceives a purpose, then reflects 
upon the means of accomplishing it, carefully 
estimates its magnitude and considers the ob- 
stacles in its way, and finally gathers his 
forces to win the victory. He never measures 
the power of his personality; he has blind 
faith in himself, knowing that there always 
remain in reserve ideas and resources with 
which to meet the unexpected. He does not 
trust in his star, as Napoleon did ; he has no 
superstitions, as Caesar had; he never leaves 
anything to chance. Being an inflexible 
logician, a mathematical calculator, he ex- 
pects everything to turn out according to 
his deductions and calculations. That is to 
19 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

say, he has absolute confidence in his own 
genius. 

From the race commingling already men- 
tioned, he has inherited neither the fatalism 
of the Indian, nor the superstition of the 
Latin; or, if these factors have entered into 
his make-up, they have neutralized each other 
so perfectly that they have disappeared. 

As a soldier, we see him always working 
with the certainty and the inexhaustible en- 
ergy of the forces of nature. As a states- 
man, we see him acting with the firmness of 
profound conviction and with the precision 
of a mathematical formula. His self-com- 
mand is so perfect that he always succeeds 
in whatever he undertakes, whether the task 
is that of cutting his way through the armed 
ranks of an enemy or through political vicis- 
situdes and obstructions. In military history, 
he appears as a thunderbolt in attack, as a 
rock in defense. But anyone who studies this 
biography deeply and becomes intimately ac- 
quainted with its hero will be convinced that 
20 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

even those actions which seem most violent 
and hasty, such as the assault of Puebla on 
April 2, 1867, were never actuated by a sud- 
den inspiration, but were the result of cold 
calculation. One can see also that, if his 
conception of defense was that of a rock for 
stability, it in no way implied inactivity; for 
whenever he found himself in the mountains, 
pursued and surrounded by enemies, or shut 
up within the walls of a fortification, he al- 
ways tried to assume the offensive. 

As a ruler we find in him traces of audacity 
identical with those which are conspicuous in 
his military career; audacity in execution, 
never in resolution ; for his plans are always 
made with calm reflection. For instance, at 
the commencement of his second term of of- 
fice as President, in December, 1884, he was 
confronted by an empty treasury, a country 
with all its resources mortgaged, and a people 
overwhelmed with debt. In this situation, 
which would have disheartened a man of the 
utmost courage, Porfirio Diaz remained im- 
21 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

perturbable yet daring; for be promulgated 
the edicts of June 22, 1885, which placed 
all the creditors of the state on an equal 
footing, temporarily suspended the pay- 
ment of debts, reduced the salaries of public 
officials and employees, and converted the 
claims against the treasury into notes at six 
per cent, a rate which represented a just com- 
pensation in view of the arrangement to defer 
payment. 

I do not find in Porfirio Diaz, either as a 
general or as a statesman, that fiery rashness 
or ill-considered bravery which has been at- 
tributed to him. Indeed, such qualities ap- 
pear to me serious defects, rather than vir- 
tues, in a general or a statesman; for a good 
soldier does nothing by chance, and a good 
statesman knows that rashness hardly ever 
results favorably. But what is more to the 
point, it is strictly in accordance with the 
facts to consider Porfirio Diaz a man of pru- 
dence in council and courage in action. His 
prudence is not to be mistaken for mere com- 
22 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

mon sense, which makes men choose the saf- 
est means in order to keep out of danger ; nor 
yet that which in reality is nothing more than 
the instinct of self-preservation; nor even 
that of the higher order, which employs the 
means most effective for achieving the de- 
sired results. His prudence is of the highest 
type, that which distinguishes the true 
hero, impelling him to follow resolutely the 
promptings of his own nature, accepting its 
advantages and disadvantages, conveniences 
and inconveniences, and always remaining 
true to his own individuality. In fact, the 
chief secret of Porfirio Diaz's success is that 
he has never falsified his own nature. 

There are many points of similarity be- 
tween Diaz and Napoleon, but one must, of 
course, always bear in mind the difference in 
period and in general conditions. Porfirio 
Diaz has a profound contempt for men in 
general, although he has always tried to 
hide it. And, after all, could there be any- 
thing more natural for a man in his position, 
3 23 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

who has constantly before his eyes all the 
wretchedness of human nature: perfidious 
envy, mean-spirited calumny, abject flattery, 
groundless pretensions, barefaced ambitions, 
infamous hypocrisy, and who is obliged to 
contend against all these passions, and 
against that horde of wonder-workers who, 
whether they wear frock coats or uniforms 
or the Sunday best of the middle class, are 
all animated by a common self-interest. Any- 
one who sees all this will, I repeat, almost 
of necessity feel a profound disgust for the 
human race. This helps us to understand the 
skepticism of Richelieu, Cromwell, Charles 
V, Philip II, Frederick the Great, and 
Napoleon. For Diaz, as for these other 
great figures in history, men are simply 
factors in an equation, to be added or sub- 
tracted with the same indifference to second- 
ary considerations that a mathematician 
would feel. But if the factor eliminated has 
the power to become a dangerous enemy in 
the event of his falling into abject despera- 
24 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

tion, the statesman must keep him at a cer- 
tain level without permitting him to rise too 
high or fall too low, until death removes the 
man altogether. 

Death has been a most powerful ally of 
General Diaz. Every man who has crossed 
his path or had the power to oppose him, has 
fallen by death. I do not now refer to those 
whom he has had shot as revolutionists, but 
to all those others : Juarez, Corona, Pacheco, 
Dublan, Romero, Rubio, etc., whether ene- 
mies or dangerous friends. This does not 
mean that I suspect General Diaz of having 
aided in the disappearance of those men ; for 
I am not capable of making such cowardly 
insinuations, and calumny is the last thing I 
wish to be guilty of. Death has come of its 
own accord, as an intelligent and opportune 
ally; that is all. Napoleon was less scrupu- 
lous ; he aided death. 

Napoleon said that he had " made his gen- 
erals of common clay." Porfirio Diaz may 
well say that he has done the same in the case 
25 



POKFIRIO DIAZ 

of practically all his satellites. For with the 
exception of Don Matias Romero, and of Don 
Ignacio Mariscal, the President has never 
utilized the services or the talents of any 
man who had reached eminence before the 
Diaz regime. All those who have figured 
in high positions since 1878 owe everything 
to him; therefore it may well be said of 
President Diaz, as it was of the great Cor- 
sican, that he knows the capacity and the 
quality of every one of the men whom he 
manipulates. 

Diaz has always had an exalted opinion of 
the press, not because of its usefulness to the 
public, but because of the injury which it 
might do to his plans. Not daring to destroy 
it directly, he subjugated it. Following the 
maxim that the press can only be combated 
by the press, he started partisan papers and 
aided them generously, in order to make in- 
dependent competition impossible. Napoleon 
said that if he had granted liberty to the 
press, his power would not have lasted three 
26 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

days. President Diaz was of the same opin- 
ion, and for that reason armed himself with 
the printing law, which fetters all those who 
write or print. This he did in good faith ; for 
in order to carry out his plans, it was neces- 
sary that neither his aims nor his methods 
should be discussed. It was also necessary 
to avoid opposition, which is always passion- 
ate with us, and leads to the revolutionary 
impulse. This it was General Diaz's purpose 
to kill once and for all. 

Another aphorism of Napoleon is that a 
great reputation makes a great noise, and 
that the greater the noise, the farther off it 
will be heard ; on the other hand, laws, insti- 
tutions, monuments, even nations, come to an 
end, while the noise continues reverberating 
down through the ages. Porfirio Diaz thought 
the same, but with this difference: what in 
Napoleon^s case was simply a question of 
vanity, with Diaz was a political creed. At 
first his natural modesty made him shun 
notoriety, but when he understood how use- 
27 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ful it was, he accepted it and perpetuated it, 
not in order to satisfy his own vanity, but 
that of his countrymen ; for he found that it 
helped to keep them united to him through 
their national pride. It also had the effect 
of making it seem necessary that he should 
continue in power. Nevertheless, I repeat 
that President Diaz hates exaggeration and 
dislikes a Wagnerian blast of trumpets. 

Napoleon was jealous of his best generals, 
and some people say that Porfirio Diaz also 
was jealous of those who were prominent in 
serving their country during the time of the 
French invasion. To prove the charge, they 
cite Escobedo and Corona, who, they say, 
never enjoyed the favor of President Diaz. 
I think that those who hold this opinion are 
mistaken. In the first place, Diaz is unques- 
tionably far superior in military genius to 
the two captains just mentioned ; there never 
was any danger of their eclipsing him. In 
the second place, Escobedo was a political 
enemy of President Diaz, and Corona was 
28 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

never truly one of his party. Finally, the 
President did honor both of these men, and, 
if he did not elevate them to the highest posi- 
tions, it was, as I have already said, because 
he never used any men except those whom he 
himself had molded and raised to office. 
With Corona, furthermore, there was a 
peculiar circumstance: he figured as one of 
the possible successors of President Diaz. 
Corona himself expected this honor, and not 
without reason, for he had already been 
made governor of the powerful State of Ja- 
lisco. This post he held until he came to a 
tragic death at the hands of a crazy fanatic, 
who committed suicide immediately after- 
wards. The family of General Corona en- 
joyed and still enjoys the firm protection of 
President Diaz. 

As a diplomat, President Diaz stands in the 
highest rank. Some writers have maintained 
that he belongs to the school of Machiavelli, 
amended and brought up to date by Napo- 
leon; that he is not afraid of either truth or 
29 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

falsehood, but uses both as circumstances re- 
quire. The above assertion is another grave 
error. President Diaz is original in diplo- 
macy as in everything else. His diplomacy 
is his own ; no one so well knows how to steer 
between Scylla and Charybdis, without allow- 
ing either to so much as suspect which course 
he has made up his mind to follow. He can 
give out a false scent without falsehood ; just 
as an expert swordsman tells no lies when he 
makes a feint with his blade. Certain it is 
that when he concedes anything, he does it 
on the same principle as the fisherman, who 
risks his worthless bait in order to catch a 
fish. 

Pope Leo XIII, who was reputed a most 
skillful diplomat, tried to make a concordat 
with President Diaz, and sent as his agent 
Monsignor Seraffini, an exceptionally gifted 
man for the undertaking. After many visits 
and frequent conferences with the President, 
the Italian diplomat acknowledged himself 
outgeneraled. In conversation with a friend 
30 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

of mine, who had become intimate with Mon- 
signor Seraffini, the latter confessed that he 
had never encountered such a man as Presi- 
dent Diaz. When he thought he had him 
cornered, with no way of escape except that 
of a direct answer, Diaz slipped through his 
fingers with the agility of an eel. In spite 
of skillful cross-questioning, Seraffini failed 
to discover what the President thought re- 
garding the concordat. He never succeeded 
in eliciting any kind of a promise, a " Per- 
haps," a " We will see," or even a refusal. 

General Diaz is head of the Freemasons in 
Mexico. He is of the thirty-third degree and 
Grand Commander for life. At the same time 
he is the invisible head of the Catholic 
Church, its arch protector and its director, 
influencing indirectly the appointment of 
bishops and archbishops and the creation of 
new dioceses and archbishoprics. In this 
way he has managed to prevent Mexican 
Freemasonry, which has always been Jac- 
obin, and the clergy, which has always been 
31 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

revolutionary and retrogressive, from mak- 
ing a single move. He presides at the chief 
masonic functions, his wife presides at im- 
portant religious ceremonials; thus, both 
Jacobins and Ultramontanes have been sat- 
isfied, and each party claims a victory, which 
in reality is nothing more than a defeat for 
them both. 

This is another instance, some people say, 
of what they call " the policy of concilia- 
tion." But in reality it is another indica- 
tion of the subordination and pacification, 
to which I have already referred, each body 
revolving in the plane of its own orbit and 
having for its center the President of the 
Republic. 

In politics it has been the chief aim of Pres- 
ident Diaz to obtain the friendship of the 
United States. This once gained, he has in- 
creased and strengthened it to the utmost. 
To maintain these ties, he has been willing 
to make every kind of sacrifice; to such a 
32 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

point has he carried his policy, that there are 
those who say that to-day there is nothing in 
Mexico worth so much as citizenship papers 
of the United States. Others assert that the 
President has no real sympathy with the 
United States, but is acting like a child 
seeking the protection of a stronger and 
more formidable comrade against the ag- 
gression of his schoolfellows. To this big 
boy he gives in return his best toys and most 
tempting dainties. 

The fact is that President Diaz has a sin- 
cere admiration for the Government and 
people of the United States. It has always 
been his policy to strengthen the friendly 
relations between the two countries and to 
make the relationship evident to all the 
world. Moreover, it is quite possible that, 
if he had not realized this aim, his achieve- 
ments for Mexico would not have reached the 
magnitude which they have actually attained. 

The friendship of the United States means 
to President Diaz the security of his north- 
33 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ern frontier, the elimination from politics of 
any question of international friction with 
his powerful neighbor, a cloud which loomed 
upon the horizon several times during his 
first two presidential terms. Friendship 
with the United States means also the secur- 
ity of our southern frontier, which has been 
threatened by Guatemala every time that 
country has succeeded in securing the moral 
support of the United States, as she did when 
Mr. Blaine was Secretary of State. Friendly 
relations with the United States means the 
introduction into Mexico of American cap- 
ital, and of great business undertakings by 
Americans. T^his of itself has been one of 
the most important elements in the develop- 
ment of the country, because it has increased 
the reputation of Mexico, inspired confidence 
in European nations, and made it possible 
to organize the public debt and to raise loans. 
It has served also as a powerful check upon 
the turbulent elements of the interior, by 
making them understand that anyone who 
34 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

conspires against the Government might 
thereby precipitate American intervention, 
thus endangering the nationality of Mexico 
itself. This has been in reality one of the 
principal factors in the pacification of the 
country and the maintenance of permanent 
peace. 

It has been conclusively proved that there 
is in men a constant tendency to consider as 
inseparable an efficient cause and its results. 
The idea of power and the idea of greatness 
have been evolved in the mind with such close 
analogy that they appear at first sight as 
identical, or, at least, as so closely related 
that they have become inseparable. It is this 
misconception, which makes it impossible to 
conceive Alexander or Caesar or Napoleon 
as men of ordinary stature, and justifies the 
saying of the sculptor Bouchardon that when 
he reads Homer, he beholds men ten feet 
high. 

The same thing has happened in the case 
35 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

of General Diaz : imagination represents him 
as a Colossus and in all his pictures he ap- 
pears as a man of great height. On horse- 
back he does actually carry out the illusion, 
because he has the habit, so common among 
military chiefs, of riding very tall horses. 
When sitting he produces the same impres- 
sion, because he is long of body and a trifle 
short of leg. Even on foot he appears taller 
than he really is, because of a certain erect- 
ness of carriage, acquired during the last 
twenty-five years ; a sort of personal impres- 
siveness, perhaps the outward expression of 
the evolution which has been taking place in 
his character and position. One might al- 
most say that since he left off being a soldier, 
he has acquired the military carriage. 

To any one of us, who has known him dur- 
ing the last forty years, this is evident; to 
others a glance at his photographs, taken at 
different periods, would demonstrate this 
evolution. 

As a young man he looked somewhat timid, 
36 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

certainly far from self-confident. He was 
awkward, thin, with something of a stoop, 
and careless in his dress. The change in him 
really commenced after his second presi- 
dency in 1884. Contact with the best soci- 
ety, the influence of his second wife, his 
relations with the diplomatic corps, the exi- 
gencies of his high political position, the 
culture which he was insensibly acquiring, 
and his genius, have all contributed to trans- 
form him in appearance from a guerrila 
chief to an accomplished man of the world, 
grave and with an air of unaffected elegance 
and dignity. 

This athletic pose has been by some people 
attributed to senile vanity. The truth is that, 
as he has grown older, General Diaz has seen 
fit to exhibit more and more the physical force 
and agility, which were always in him ; but to 
my mind it has been brought out not by van- 
ity, but for political purposes. It is a manner 
assumed to inspire public confidence and a 
belief in his remarkable energy and lasting 
37 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ability to remain in power and to carry all 
the cares of state upon his ample shoulders. 
General Diaz is a little above medium 
height, and one might well say that he is of 
the model size for an active man; he makes 
one conscious of his power. He ha3 broad 
shoulders, large chest, well-developed and 
prominent muscles, with no sign of embon- 
point; his figure has a muscular contour, 
which in spite of his age is not obscured 
with fat; in short, he has a Herculean con- 
stitution and shows it in every line. His 
head is of good size ; his forehead is moder- 
ately high, broad and open; his eyes are 
dark and symmetrically placed; his glance 
is firm and a little severe when he is speak- 
ing, and extraordinarily penetrating when 
he listens; his nose is regular, somewhat 
broad at the end, with rather open nos- 
trils, as if his well-developed lungs needed 
to breathe a great quantity of air ; his mouth 
is neither large nor small, covered with a 
gray, military mustache; his lips are firm 
38 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

without compression, and look as if they 
knew how to keep silent, even under torture, 
and as evidently could speak fluently when 
occasion demanded, without ever falling into 
garrulousness ; his chin is somewhat fleshy 
but well shaped; his ears are large rather 
than small; his neck is broad and a trifle 
short, like that of a man descended from a 
race accustomed through many generations 
to carry the weight of a steel helmet; his 
color is high, as that of a full-blooded man 
should be, but without a trace of plethoric 
lividness; his hair is short, stiff and thick; 
in its time it was black, but to-day it is gray; 
his hands are of medium size, somewhat 
broad and nervous; his legs are short com- 
pared with his body; his feet well propor- 
tioned. 

In walking he carries his head high with- 
out stiffness or haughtiness; breathes deep- 
ly and easily; has a look of confidence, as 
normally developed men should have ; a firm, 
resolute step, light without precipitation. 
4 39 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

These outward signs correspond to those of 
a man who has full confidence in himself, 
boundless energy, and is destined to long life. 
His attitude is one of easy activity ; just what 
one would expect of a dominant nature which 
acts without effort. Apparently he has not 
a single muscle held forcibly in restraint, and 
his firm, free movements indicate a person 
with a will always ready to assert itself. 

His moral make-up corresponds to his phys- 
ical. His is a soul of steel within a body of 
iron. The body is unbreakable, the soul has 
the temper of a Toledo blade, rigid in cutting, 
flexible only in the thrust ; not with the flexi- 
bility of the subdued, but of the conqueror, 
and it immediately returns to the attack with 
greater force than before, and never breaks 
nor twists. 

In General Diaz memory, intellect, and will 
are all equally well developed. His memory 
is astounding; he remembers the face and 
name of everyone whom he has ever seen, 
even if only once; he recalls the circum- 
40 



CHARACTEEISTICS OF DIAZ 

stances and place of meeting. He also lias a 
good memory for events, dates, and places. 

He is a great character reader. It seems 
to be instinctive with him when anyone 
speaks to him upon a matter of importance, 
even if it is entirely new to him and very 
complex, to concentrate all his attention upon 
it; and hardly has one time to sketch the 
outline, before he has grasped its connection 
and its details, as if by intuition. 

He enters into the business of administra- 
tion down to its minutest details, without be- 
coming petty. He takes up each day, at great 
length, his immense private correspondence, 
and dictates the answers. He keeps in touch 
with the affairs of the whole world, and keeps 
pace with science and literature as well; he 
reads and studies, who knows when! His 
voice is low, strong and somewhat hoarse; 
his speech is deliberate, but always has the 
ring of command. 

Among his intimates, especially when he 
leaves the Capital for a visit to the country, 
41 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

or for a hunt, he shows traces of the boy af- 
ter school is dismissed. He has a veritable 
passion for hunting and is a first-rate shot. 
On trips of this kind his spirits break out 
into something very like joviality, though 
he never quite reaches that point; he is, 
however, what one would call extremely good 
company, and at such times he does not want 
to talk shop. 

He is to-day, as always, extremely temper- 
ate in his eating and drinking, and very much 
averse to late hours, although he is amply 
able to stand them. He gets up at sunrise, 
takes a cold bath, goes through some gym- 
nastic exercises, and then has a walk. His 
life is as regular as clockwork, and for that 
reason he has time for everything and does 
everything at the proper time. 

When he finds it necessary to speak in pub- 
lic, he expresses himself with restrained elo- 
quence, interspersed with felicitous phrases. 
He always goes straight to the heart of the 
question, handling it with tact, yet in a 
42 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

straightforward manner. As a rule, under 
the excitement of inspiration, however calm 
he may be outwardly, a certain softening, 
almost sadness, comes over him and tears 
dim his eyes. 

In his private life he is, perhaps, even a 
finer man than in his public character. He 
commands the greatest respect and admira- 
tion of his friends, and might be called a 
perfect model in his family. In fact, his 
supremely well-ordered private life has been 
one of the chief causes of his popularity, as 
well as of his success and his inexhaustible 
energy. This has been a blessing to Mexico, 
for if General Diaz had been a libertine, the 
corruption of Mexico would have surpassed 
that of Rome at the time of the Caesars. 

Plutarch, in his work entitled " How to 
Reap Benefit from our Enemies," asserts 
that among the benefits which these may con- 
fer upon us, one of the greatest is that of 
obliging us to live always on our guard 
against plots ; another consists in forcing us 
43 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

to live honestly in order to outdo our rivals, 
not by combat, but by obliging them to be 
secretly jealous of our good qualities. 

Had Porfirio Diaz read these words of wis- 
dom, or did he know them by instinct 1 I can- 
not say; but the fact is that from his early 
youth he has been what he is to-day at sev- 
enty-seven years. Those who have known 
him longest, those who have lived with him 
in the intimate association of the military 
camp, those who have seen him at short 
range in all the phases of his existence, agree 
that he has not changed an atom in his 
habits. 

Temperate both by nature and by training, 
he has never given himself up to the dissi- 
pations so common among the young men 
of the army, especially when they are in the 
field ; he never has taken the least advantage 
of the halo of glory, which surrounded him 
when he was still quite young, to enter upon 
any of those romantic adventures, for the 
indulgence of which he might well have been 
U 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

pardoned on account of his youth and his 
position. 

Strict with others, he has always been par- 
ticularly strict with himself, and his private 
conduct has served as a constant example to 
his equals and to his subordinates. He has 
always taken duty for his standard — duty 
fulfilled to the letter. 

This athlete of countless struggles, this 
gladiator of countless victories, has had the 
forethought and the ability to create a refuge 
in which to rest, when he laid down his arms, 
or set aside the cares of administration — a 
refuge where he might convert himself into 
an everyday man, refresh his body by repose, 
and renew the temper of his soul through the 
affections of his family. 

When we consider the home life of Napo- 
leon, we find that this monopolizer of all 
the glories committed grave errors, upon 
which, perhaps, the ultimate disaster of his 
portentous labors turned. These errors con- 
sisted in never having known how to make 
45 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

a true friend, nor to love and be loved by 
a woman. He was a consummate egotist; 
lie had no notion what the give and take of 
love meant; he succeeded in making himself 
admired and feared, but not loved, nor re- 
spected. There was in him brain without 
heart, force without feeling. In short, he was 
a monster, in whom was nothing human but 
the form. 

General Diaz, as we have seen, did not 
make these mistakes; he well knew how to 
make friends who should be, as it were, the 
completion of his own being on its material, 
intellectual, and emotional sides. General 
Diaz attracted to his circle companions, who 
came because of their avarice, and he took 
care that their greed should never be sati- 
ated; he well understood how to keep them 
attached to the ruler who dispensed favors. 
He inspired the affection of two women, who 
became identified with him, and who suited 
admirably the two roles which he played one 
after another in public life. His first wife 
46 



CHARACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

followed him during the years in which he 
was acquiring fame, and died at the very 
hour of his triumph. His second wife was 
by his side while he was making an immortal 
name for himself, and shared in his deifica- 
tion. Both were the completion of his moral 
self, bringing to him that feminine quality 
which is necessary for the perfection of the 
soul of man, for it is that which humanizes 
him. 

Such is President Diaz, roughly sketched, 
physically and morally. He has a bodily 
frame well calculated to resist the wear and 
tear of life, and ready to perform all its ac- 
tivities with the agility of the gymnast and 
the strength of the athlete. He is the type of 
the soldier and the gentleman, he cuts a good 
figure on horseback in his military uniform, 
resplendent with magnificent decorations, 
both national and foreign ; he makes an equal- 
ly good appearance in the drawing-room, in 
the severe dress of the civilian, only relieved 
47 



POBFIRIO DIAZ 

by a simple boutonniere. He looks like a 
man who can withstand the strain of long 
days in the saddle or on foot without over- 
fatigue and pass nights on the watch, or 
sleeping under the light military tent, without 
injuring his health; who would be quite un- 
affected by exposure to deluges of rain or 
the tropical sun, or the winter snows of our 
high moimtains; he is proof as well against 
the cares of administration, the disappoint- 
ments of politics, and the rubs of everyday 
life. 

I do not dare to maintain that the appear- 
ance which we all note is a reality. No one 
knows what General Diaz really is physically, 
or how he may look to his valet, when he is 
not on parade. His seventy-seven years of 
constant struggle and stress of mind must 
have made internal ravages, which he care- 
fully conceals. 

The effort on behalf of Minister Liman- 
tour, which President Diaz has been making 
for some time past, is considered by many 
48 




PRESIDENT DIAZ IN THE UNIFORM OF MAJOR GENERAL. 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF DIAZ 

people as a sure sign of his decadence. I do 
not believe it ! In this, as in everything else, 
the President is following a political motive, 
perhaps that of making ready a remote suc- 
cessor, watching him and trying to make him 
popular little by little, without regard for the 
fact that he can never become a successful 
candidate ; for Mr. Limantour, notwithstand- 
ing all his prestige, can never become Presi- 
dent of Mexico, because the constitution for- 
bids it.* 

To sum up the whole life of President Diaz 
in a word, one might say that his most strik- 
ing bodily characteristic is force, his most 
striking mental characteristics compelling 
will and irresistible energy. Even the poor- 
est character reader, seeing President Diaz 

1 The Mexican Constitution requires that the President of 
the Republic shall be a native Mexican; it is not enough that 
he should have been born within the national territory, for, 
as we follow the jus sanguinis not the jus solis, his parents 
also must be Mexican citizens. Senor Limantour's father and 
mother were French, and he remained of their nationality, 
until he was twenty-one. At that time, he chose to become a 
Mexican citizen. He is, therefore, a citizen by naturalization 
only. 

49 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

for the first time, without having the slight- 
est previous knowledge of his personality, 
could not fail to perceive at once that the man 
before him amounted to something and was 
a distinct character. 



CHAPTER III 

PERIOD OF FORMATION 

JULIUS C^SAR, in his eulogy at the 
funeral services of his Aunt Julia, wife 
of Marius the Elder, spoke of his own 
genealogy. " My maternal grandfather," 
said he, "was descended from Ancus Mar- 
tins, one of the first kings of Eome, and my 
father belonged to the Julian family, which 
was descended from Venus. There is, there- 
fore, in my blood, the sanctity of kings, the 
masters of men, and the majesty of gods, the 
masters of kings.'* In this respect, Porfirio 
Diaz did not resemble the conqueror of all 
Gaul. Neither kings nor goddesses were 
among his ancestry. His origin is much 
more humble, and for this reason his eleva- 
tion to the supreme power is all the more to 
his credit. 
Porfirio Diaz was born in the city of Oax- 
51 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

aca, capital of the state of the same name, in 
the " Meson de la Soledad," so called because 
of its proximity to the church which bears 
that name. The house has disappeared, and 
in its place stands to-day the public school 
"Porfirio Diaz." 

His father was Jose de la Cruz Diaz and 
his mother Petrona Mori, both descendants 
of the Spanish and native Indian races. 
Senora Mori's father was of Asturian stock, 
and her mother, Tecla Cortes, of the pure 
Mexican-Indian race. 

Jose Diaz and Petrona Mori had already 
had five children, when a boy was born who, 
on September 15, 1830, was baptized with the 
name of JOSE DE LA CRUZ PORFIRIO 
DIAZ. His godfather, Jose Augustm Do- 
minguez, was a man of college education, 
and at that time curate of Nochixtlan; 
later he became Bishop of Oaxaca. In the 
baptismal record the date of the birth of the 
child is omitted, but September 15th has 
been generally considered as the birth- 
52 



PERIOD OF FOEMATION 

day of the President of the Mexican Ee- 
pnblic. 

Don Jose had been farrier of a regiment, 
and on taking up his quarters in Oaxaca, he 
installed in a part of his house a blacksmith's 
forge and a veterinary hospital. In the 
midst of these poor surroundings, Senor and 
Senora Diaz lived, free from actual want, 
and brought up their numerous family, which 
was further augmented by a seventh child, 
Felix, who was the last. 

In 1833, hard-working Don Jose died a vic- 
tim to the epidemic of cholera, and Dona 
Petrona remained a widow, poor, and under 
the necessity of vigorous struggle in order 
to live and support her children. This she 
succeeded in doing, because of her character 
and energy. 

Porfirio Diaz came into the world under 
very unfavorable circumstances, according 
to the common opinion on such matters, but 
under the most favorable circumstances, ac- 
cording to my judgment. Poverty, border- 
53 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

ing on misery, makes the best mold in which 
to cast great characters. History proves this 
in a manner quite irrefutable. As far as 
Mexico is concerned, the three greatest men 
she has produced, Morelos, Juarez, and Por- 
firio Diaz were turned out of this mold. 

Adulation represents Porfirio Diaz as a 
prodigy from his very infancy. Nothing 
could be more untrue ; he was not precocious 
in childhood, nor distinguished as a student 
in college. His education was not better than 
the average. The best proof of this (in spite 
of all published statements to the contrary) 
is that General Diaz read badly and wrote 
worse — in a hand which rivaled Napoleon's 
for illegibility. Napoleon is said to have 
been unable to read his own handwriting ; no 
expert could decipher his scrawls, and, fur- 
thermore, his knowledge of grammar was con- 
spicuous by its absence. I have no wish to 
detract from either general's reputation, but 
to state matters just as they are. However, 
it is not necessary to know grammar in order 
54 



PERIOD OF FORMATION 

to win battles and elevate one's self to the 
rank of a hero; nor is it necessary to know 
Latin in order to achieve fame as a states- 
man. On the contrary, a first-rate univer- 
sity education is, in my opinion, apt to be a 
grave impediment in the way of either 
achievement. 

Porfirio Diaz did not owe his success to his 
schooling, but to his genius. He was neither 
precocious nor backward, but normally de- 
veloped. 

Almost before he had mastered the rudi- 
ments, he began to learn his chosen trade, 
that of carpentry. In 1845, when he was 
only fifteen years old, his mother made up 
her mind to enter him in the Oaxaca Semi- 
nary, in order that he might take the prelim- 
inary course necessary to prepare him for 
the priesthood. 

In pursuance of this object, he continued 

his studies till 1849, when, at the suggestion 

of his godfather, Don Jose Augustin Domin- 

guez, the Church was decided upon as his 

5 55 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

career. Tliis decision was made to please his 
mother and to take advantage of his god- 
father's offer of a chaplaincy. In those days, 
a chaplaincy opened the way to a life of 
broad opportunities. 

If Porfirio Diaz did not show any great 
disposition for his books, he did, like Ber- 
trand Duquesclin, reveal excellent qualifica- 
tions as a fighter with clubs, fists, rocks, or 
any weapon which came to hand. In those 
days of riot and revolution, Porfirio's fight- 
ing tendencies found ready means for their 
development, and he was made captain of 
a company of boys who were learning to drill 
in the squares and open places of Oaxaca. 
At that time a battalion of National Guards 
was being organized in Oaxaca to resist the 
American invasion. It never saw actual ser- 
vice, for it was composed of boys, a fact 
which gave it the nickname of " Better-than- 
Nothing." In this way, Porfirio learned how 
to handle a rifle, and according to some biog- 
raphers, took his first lessons in tactics and 
56 



PEEIOD OF FOEMATION 

strategy at the same time under Lieutenant 
Colonel Ignacio Uria. 

Thus it happened that in 1850 Porfirio 
gave up the idea of becoming a priest, to the 
great disgust of his family, and entered the 
Institute of Oaxaca to study law, a career 
much more to his taste. In the institute he 
was irresistibly drawn toward a group of 
young men who were affiliated with the Lib- 
eral Party. He advanced regularly in his 
course, and, at the end of 1853, took his first 
examination in the law, and in January, 1854, 
his second. 

But Destiny evidently did not intend Por- 
firio Diaz either for the priesthood or the 
law. The ominous dictatorship of Santa- 
Anna had become insupportable. In those 
days there was public spirit in Mexico, and 
men of courage and sound principles who 
were ready to fight against tyranny ! 

On March 1, 1854, in the State of Gue- 
rrero, the revolutionary Declaration of Ayut- 
la was proclaimed, and on March 11th the 
57 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

garrison of Acapulco re-affirmed the Decla- 
ration, with some changes. 

Santa-Anna, baleful president for Mex- 
ico, was both a knave and a fool, however 
contradictory this may seem, for the first 
requisite of a rascal is intelligence. He 
was anxious to smother the revolution in 
blood, and marched toward the State of 
Guerrero; but at the same time, wishing to 
deceive the public, he hit upon the idea of 
requesting the people to decide by vote 
whether he should continue to exercise the 
dictatorial power, which he now stood ready 
to surrender. 

On October 20, 1854, this bombastic tyrant 
declared to the nation, through the medium 
of the Secretary of State, Don Ignacio 
Aguilar, his conviction that it was impossible 
to govern without dictatorial power, but that 
he did not desire to retain this power ex- 
cept with the full confidence of the Mexican 
people ; he was, therefore, anxious to consult 
their wishes. With this end in view he de- 
58 



PERIOD OF FOBMATION 

creed that, on December 1st, the presidents of 
the local boards should hold in all centers of 
population of Mexico mass meetings, in which 
every Mexican, of whatever class or condi- 
tion, should participate, in order to express 
with perfect freedom and inviolability his 
opinion upon this grave question. He further 
directed the people to express their will only 
upon the following points : " 1st, Whether 
Santa- Anna, President of the Republic, shall 
continue to hold the supreme power with the 
same unrestricted authority which he to-day 
exercises ; 2d, In case he is not to continue to 
exercise these unlimited powers, to whom 
shall he delegate this authority at once and 
forthwith?" 

In Oaxaca more than six thousand persons 
voted to continue him in his tyrannical pow- 
ers; only two had sufficient courage to ex- 
press their true opinion — Miguel Ruiz, who 
voted against the first clause, and named as 
president Don Juan Bautista Ceballos, and 
Porfirio Diaz, who did the same, but gave his 
59 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

vote in favor of General Juan Alvarez, 
leader of the revolution then in progress. In 
spite of all his promises of liberty and guar- 
antees to respect individual opinion, all who 
voted for General Alvarez were arrested and 
convicted of conspiracy. 

Santa-Anna's perfidious action, and the 
order of arrest, determined Porfirio Diaz's 
future; he immediately decided to flee from 
Oaxaca and join one of the revolutionary 
bands. Thought and action being one with 
him, he proceeded at once to Mixteca, and 
joined the force of one Captain Herrera, 
composed of two hundred men, badly armed, 
and without organization. 

This force was pursued and put to flight. 
Porfirio Diaz remained in hiding until July, 
1855, when the Santa- Anna government was 
overthrown in Oaxaca by a popular insurrec- 
tion. At that time, Porfirio Diaz was made 
sub-prefect of Ixtlan, and there organized 
shortly afterwards a force of one hundred 
and fifty men, with whom he participated in 
60 



PEEIOD OF FOEMATION 

the triumph of the Eevolution of Ayutla. 
After that, he became commander of a bat- 
talion of the National Guard. This position 
he soon resigned and returned to his sub- 
prefecture of Ixtlan. Here he remained only 
a short time, as the Eeactionary Party had 
appealed to arms to overthrow the govern- 
ment, which had been set up according to the 
" Declaration of Ayutla." 

At that time, the government of Oaxaca 
was reorganizing the National Guards to 
fight against the guerrilla bands of revolu- 
tionists which had invaded the state, and 
Porfirio Diaz was made captain of the 
" Second Battalion of the State." This was 
the real beginning of his military career; 
from that time on he followed this calling 
continuously and with distinction. 

Many of the biographies of President Diaz 
represent him at this time as a military gen- 
ius, and as actual director of his superiors. 
In fact, nothing of the sort was the case; I 
have General Diaz's own statement on this 
61 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

point. During the first period of his military- 
career, he made up his mind to observe, study, 
and obey. There was, of course, within him 
the material for a great captain, and this 
material was slowly developing, favored by 
circumstances. 

Diaz's first position was that of a subaltern 
who understood orders and knew how to 
carry them out. He was well disciplined, a 
good organizer, and brave. He took natu- 
rally to the art of war, acquired experience, 
and afterwards transformed the art into a 
science. 

On August 13, 1857, he was seriously 
wounded in the battle of Ixcapa. It took four 
months to heal this wound, but he pulled 
through, thanks to his sound constitution. 
He returned to the fight before he had com- 
pletely recovered, in order to cooperate in 
the defense of the city of Oaxaca, which was 
menaced from December, 1857, to January, 
1858, by the Reactionary leader of unsavory 
memory, Jose Maria Cobos. 
62 



PEEIOD OF FORMATION 

President Comonfort launched his baleful 
coup d'etat; after this came General Felix 
Zuloaga's declaration of support, in which 
he explained the plan of Tacubaya, ignoring 
the Constitution of 1857, and proclaiming 
" Religion and Privileges." 

Diaz's work in the Constitutional Party 
showed him to be a true Liberal, and he con- 
tinued fighting for this noble cause. He fig- 
ured with some distinction in the so-called 
"Three Years' War," having taken part in 
the capture of Jalapa (Oaxaca) on February 
25, 1858, and in the battle of Las Jicaras on 
April 13th of the same year, as commander- 
in-chief. This action resulted in his promo- 
tion to the rank of major on July 22d. At 
that time, he was both political head and 
military commander of Tehuantepec. 

Diaz still suffered from the wound he had 
received at Ixcapa, as the surgeons had not 
been able to find the bullet. But by good for- 
tune, some American surgeons, who hap- 
pened to be at Tehuantepec, undertook the 
63 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

operation and succeeded in removing the 
bullet. After this, the young soldier recov- 
ered all his strength and energy. 

In the year 1859 (June 17th) occurred the 
battle of Mixtequilla against Lieutenant 
Colonel Espinosa. In this battle the above- 
mentioned commander of the Reactionary 
forces was killed. On account of this success- 
ful action Diaz was promoted, on July 6th, to 
the rank of lieutenant colonel of infantry. 
On November 25th he attacked the city of Te- 
huantepec, which had been occupied by the 
Reactionaries during the time which Diaz 
had employed in going to Coatzacoalcos to 
receive and dispatch a convoy of war, 
brought from the United States and destined 
for the Liberal forces in the southern part 
of the Republic. This commission was dis- 
charged admirably by Diaz; it secured him 
promotion to colonel of infantry, and his 
commission was dated back to November 
25th. 

In referring to this period, General Ig- 
64 



PERIOD OF FORMATION 

nacio Escudero says that Porfirio Diaz, who 
was then hardly twenty-seven, had sustained 
for two years, with a mere handful of men, 
an unequal contest in the midst of a hostile 
population, without receiving a dollar in 
money or a single militiaman from either the 
State or the Federal government. In spite 
of the poverty of the region in which he was 
operating, its unhealthful condition, and the 
reactionary sentiment prevailing there, which 
caused them to refuse him all kinds of sup- 
plies and munitions of war, clothing and the 
like, he paid his forces and settled all ex- 
penses of public administration, and, in ad- 
dition, succeeded in gaining the confidence of 
the people and the credit of the merchants. 

On January 21, 1860, occurred the battle 
of Mitla, against Marcelino Cobos, a victory 
like that of Pyrrhus, which was in reality a 
disaster. On February 2d was fought the 
action of Fortin de la Soledad against the 
same rebel chief ; on March 9th that of Mar- 
quesado against Casimiro Acebal; on May 
65 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ISth that of Ixtepeji against Anastasio 
Trejo. 

The Liberal commanders operating in the 
State of Oaxaca, decided to attack Oaxaca 
city, at that time held by Jose Maria Cobos, 
who was strongly entrenched; according- 
ly they began to organize their respective 
forces with this end in view. On July 31st, 
Porfirio Diaz marched out of Ixtlan with his 
contingent, and on August 3d arrived before 
Oaxaca, Colonel Salinas with him. 

The forces of the Liberals amounted to 
barely 700 men, with 2 pieces of mounted 
artillery; those of Cobos reached 2,000 men, 
and he had in addition 6 field pieces and 6 
pieces of mounted artillery. The undertak- 
ing could not have been more audacious on 
the part of the Liberals, for they were at- 
tacking a fortification with forces inferior to 
those of their entrenched adversaries. Nev- 
ertheless, the place was taken in a series of 
open attacks. 

Porfirio Diaz was wounded in the leg, but 
66 



PEEIOD OF FORMATION 

did not leave the field for a single moment. 
As a mark of reward for these achievements, 
President Juarez raised him, on August 22d, 
to the rank of a colonel of the regular army, 
and arranged that he should proceed imme- 
diately as chief of staff of the brigade, which 
was about to leave Oaxaca to commence op- 
erations in the central part of the country. 
In that region the decisive battles against 
the Reactionary Party were about to take 
place. 

This brigade made a junction with the 
division of General Ampudia, and the " Three 
Years' War " was virtually ended on Decem- 
ber 22, 1860, by the defeat of the Reactionary 
Party at Calpulalpam. On the 11th of the 
following January Juarez made his tri- 
umphal entry into the Capital of the Re- 
public. 

Upon the reestablishment of the consti- 
tutional regime, young Colonel Diaz was 
elected a deputy from Oaxaca to the Union 
Congress, and he relinquished the command 
67 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

of his troops in order to take up his new re- 
sponsibilities. 

But the Reactionaries, although van- 
quished, were not yet crushed, and com- 
menced guerrilla warfare, pillaging villages 
and committing all sorts of crimes. General 
Leonardo Marquez, the most conspicuous of 
these chiefs, after Miranon, organized a 
considerable force and attempted to at- 
tack the Capital, but the plan was frus- 
trated, and Porfirio Diaz was one of the 
principal heroes of that memorable day, 
June 24, 1861. 

At the same time. President Juarez organ- 
ized a division for the purpose of annihilat- 
ing Marquez. He placed the division under 
the command of Gonzalez Ortega, the victor 
of Calpulalpam. 

One of the brigades in this division was 
that of Oaxaca, the one of which Porfirio 
Diaz had been Chief of Staff (Mayor de Or- 
denes), and by a mere chance — the illness of 
General Ignacio Mejia, who was its real com- 
68 



PERIOD OF FORMxVTION 

mander — it actually took the field under Por- 
firio Diaz. 

The campaign was vigorous and short. 
Marquez had more than 5,000 men and 8 
pieces of artillery, and moved with extreme 
rapidity. But his pursuers did not lose track 
of him, for Colonel Diaz moved with even 
greater rapidity, and in the early morning of 
August 13, 1861, surprised Marquez in Ja- 
latlaco. 

Diaz had orders to hold Marquez in check, 
cut off his retreat, and await the arrival of 
Gonzalez Ortega with the main body of the 
army. But the young Colonel could not re- 
sist the chance so propitiously offered him. 
He penetrated with his forces to the center of 
the camp of the Reactionaries, without being 
perceived, until he came to the porch of the 
parish church, in which the headquarters of 
the army was located. 

Diaz made his attack with his usual dash 
and daring, his soldiers performed prodigies 
of valor, and when the sun rose Diaz saw with 
69 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

surprise that the number of his prisoners 
was seven times as great as that of their 
conquerors. Nevertheless, Marquez, Zuloaga, 
and others of the principal chiefs succeeded 
in making their escape. 

Gonzalez Ortega felt great admiration for 
this bold stroke, and asked the President to 
promote forthwith the young and daring 
Oaxacan Colonel. But he added that, if the 
outcome had been different, Diaz would have 
been subjected to a court martial for having 
acted contrary to the orders from headquar- 
ters. Was this charge justified? Diaz un- 
derstood that as soon as day broke the enemy 
would become aware of his presence, and 
either retire, which would frustrate the plan 
of following up Marquez, or fight, which, in 
view of the smallness of the forces under 
Diaz's command, would oblige him to re- 
treat, in order to give General Ortega time 
enough to come up. Diaz understood that 
night surprises not infrequently turn out 
unfavorably for those who undertake them; 
70 



PERIOD OF FORMATION 

but at the same time he reasoned with good 
ground that the enemy would be tired out 
and unprepared, and he determined to risk 
all for the sake of all, judging that the pre- 
ponderance of chance was on his side, and 
knowing also that Marquez, as soon as he 
perceived the attack, would think that the 
whole Liberal army was upon him — and so it 
turned out. 

Some people have thought that they saw in 
this attack the evidence of ambition. They 
are mistaken. At that time Porfirio Diaz was 
one of the least ambitious men in Mexico. 
He acted in obedience to his inner con- 
viction that, considering the circumstances, 
there was no other wise course to pur- 
sue. General Ortega understood this well 
enough. 

President Juarez acted upon the recom- 
mendation and promoted Colonel Diaz at 
once to the rank of brigadier. This hap- 
pened on August 25, 1861, and in the above 
capacity Diaz took part in the battle of Pa- 
6 71 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

chuca, on October 20th, under the orders of 
General Tapia. 

At this point ends the first period of the 
military career of onr hero : his time of initia- 
tion, of study, and of probation. The sub- 
altern had been promoted grade by grade 
until, at barely thirty-one, he had become 
brigadier, and achieved a reputation. Only 
one place remained between him and the 
highest position in the army — that of gen- 
eral of division. This he was soon destined 
to reach through the French intervention, 
which was already at our doors, and would 
furnish ample opportunity for promotion. 



CHAPTER IV 

PEEIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

THIS is not an appropriate place to 
discuss the causes which brought 
about the French intervention, nor 
to mention the dishonorable conduct of the 
representatives of France in Mexico, for the 
reader will find all this, elaborated with full 
details, in works of another kind. I am at 
present concerned only with what affects the 
military life of Porfirio Diaz, and I am glad 
to say that it fell to the lot of his forces to 
fire the first shot in this disastrous cam- 
paign, and also to fire the last in the final 
siege and occupation of the Capital of the 
Eepublic. 

In truth the French, in violation of the 

Treaty of Soledad, instead of retiring to a 

line back of Chiquihuite, as had been agreed 

upon, treacherously attacked a Mexican out- 

73 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

post. This consisted of a company of forty 
men belonging to the Second Brigade of Oax- 
aca, the one which Porfirio Diaz commanded. 
The brave Colonel Felix Diaz, younger 
brother of the general, commanded the out- 
post, which fought heroically against 400 
French soldiers. Colonel Diaz, after being 
wounded and taken prisoner, was overpow- 
ered, but escaped that very night from the 
clutches of his enemies. By this attack, which 
took place on April 19, 1862, hostilities were 
opened. 

Porfirio Diaz was in command of the ad- 
vance guard of the Mexican army, and held 
a position on the plains of Escamela, about 
six miles from the place in which his brother 
had been set upon. He at once took the neces- 
sary steps to resist the enemy. Zaragoza, 
who was the general in chief, ordered a re- 
treat; General Diaz's contingent became the 
rear guard, and covered the retrograde move- 
ment with bra very and faultless maneuvering. 

In the action of April 28th, on the heights 
74 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

of Acultzingo, it fell to the lot of General 
Diaz's forces to check the advance of the 
French while the main army was retreating. 
General Zaragoza ordered him to defend the 
position, at any cost, for an hour after the 
last of the national troops had passed over 
Colorado Bridge. Diaz, with a handful of 
men, blocked the French advance until night 
had fallen. Then he quietly retired. 

On the memorable day of May 5th, General 
Diaz figured among the principal heroes. His 
defense of the outpost of " La Ladrillera," 
his fight in the open field against the best 
soldiers of the French army, the boldness 
with which he obstructed the advance of these 
troops, and the defeat which made them flee 
in disorder to their camp, constituted one of 
the most glorious episodes of that never-to- 
be-forgotten day. General Zaragoza was 
obliged to send most peremptory orders to 
Porfirio Diaz to induce him to relinquish his 
pursuit of the enemy and return to the city. 

After this defeat, the French retired 
75 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

toward Orizaba with General Zaragoza fol- 
lowing them, and the French intervention 
would certainly have been ended at that city 
in the State of Vera Cruz, had it not been for 
the disaster which befell General Ortega's 
forces at Borrego Hill, at daybreak, on July 
14th. This disaster frustrated the admirable 
plan of the Chief of the Army of the East. 

On the same day the French attacked Zara- 
goza. This battle, generally known under 
the name of " Accion de la Ceiba," was un- 
favorable to the French, whose forces were 
driven back and obliged to take refuge in the 
trenches of Orizaba, pursued by Berriozabal 
and Porfirio Diaz. 

In spite of this success, Zaragoza consid- 
ered it prudent to fall back toward Puebla. 
He appointed Porfirio Diaz provisional com- 
mander of the division of General Llave, 
who had been wounded in Borrego, and this 
made Diaz Governor and Military Command- 
er of the State of Vera Cruz, which had al- 
ready been placed under martial law. But 
76 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

General Diaz succeeded in obtaining his re- 
lease from this civil command and returned 
to the Army of the East as Chief of the Sec- 
ond Brigade of the First Division. 

Zaragoza died a victim of typhus, and was 
succeeded by General Gonzalez Ortega, who 
defended Puebla during the memorable siege 
maintained by Forey from March 16th to 
May 17, 1863. 

In this siege, so full of instances of hero- 
ism and so glorious for the Mexican forces, 
Porfirio Diaz stood out as one of the most 
eminent figures in the defense of his country. 
His principal achievements were the defense 
of the barracks of San Marcos and of the 
Square of San Augustin, which won him 
honorable mention in the report of the ac- 
tions of April 3d and 4th. He also gained 
distinction for his share in the day's fighting 
which took place on the 19th of the same 
month. His brilliant conduct on these occa- 
sions gained him promotion to the rank of 
general, under date of May 29, 1863. 
77 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

Diaz was taken prisoner in Puebla with the 
entire garrison, which surrendered uncondi- 
tionally. But he was one of the first to es- 
cape and make application to Juarez to be 
allowed to continue serving his country. 

Juarez left the Capital and confided to 
Diaz the command of the Central Army, 
whose duty it was to cover the retreat of the 
president. 

On October 14, 1863, Juarez made Diaz 
general of division, and entrusted to him as 
his field of action the Eastern Section, begin- 
ning with the State of Oaxaca. 

Diaz accepted the responsibility, and with 
a small army moved from San Juan del Eio 
by the mountain road toward the southeast. 
He was obliged to traverse a region occupied 
by the French and by an army composed of 
those Mexicans who had betrayed their coun- 
try and allied themselves with the French. 
This was the beginning of Porfirio Diaz's 
period of great military achievement. He 
arrived at Tasco, and on October 26th, 27th, 
78 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

and 28th engaged in his first battle as 
General of Division, which resulted in the 
defeat of the garrison, the capture of its 
defenders, and the appropriation of a 
considerable quantity of arms and ammu- 
nition. 

After this, he marched rapidly toward 
Oaxaca, which was destined to become his 
base of operations. During this period he 
had under his exclusive command the States 
of Oaxaca, Puebla, Taxcala, and Vera Cruz; 
he succeeded not only in administering, as 
far as possible, these State governments, but 
also managed to give aid to the patriots, who 
were struggling for the cause of national in- 
dependence in Tabasco and Chiapas. 

But the great plans which this intrepid 
captain had conceived could not be realized, 
because of treason in the ranks of the defend- 
ers of their country and the consequent dis- 
affection of many of its sons. 

General Bazaine, commander of the French 
army, was greatly disturbed when he per- 
79 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ceived the progress that Diaz was making, 
and decided to attack him personally with 
the best forces he had under his command. 
He ordered General Brincourt, who was op- 
erating in the State of Puebla, to advance 
upon the frontier of Oaxaca. This Brin- 
court did at once, marching with 2,000 men 
against Huajuapam de Leon at the same 
time that Colonel Giraud, with the Seventh 
of line, directed his march toward San An- 
tonio Nanahuatipam. 

At this point Diaz conceived one of his ad- 
mirable plans. He started ostensibly for 
Huajuapam, and, on reaching Tejupam, 
turned suddenly to the right to attack the 
rear guard of the French at La Canada. At 
Nanahuatipam, Colonel Espinosa had been 
posted with one battalion to oppose the 
forces of Brincourt. Diaz ordered Espinosa 
to maintain his position, at all costs, until 
further notice, in order that he might sup- 
port Diaz, when he should attack the rear 
guard of the French. Unfortunately, Es- 
80 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

pinosa gave way before the time ; but, in 
spite of this, Diaz attacked the enemy and 
dislodged him, and would have obtained a 
complete victory, if Espinosa had attacked 
the French in the front. But this was not to 
be ! The French had time to re-form, thanks 
to their discipline and courage, and turned 
into a disaster what had already been a vic- 
tory for our army. This action took place 
on August 10, 1864. Diaz fell back upon Es- 
pinosa, and both countermarched to Oaxaca, 
in which place General Diaz made the mis- 
take of shutting himself up. 

General Mariano Escobedo, the general 
who afterwards became the conqueror of 
Maximilian, and Rafael Benavides separated 
from General Diaz on account of a disagree- 
ment. The French general, Courtois d'Hur- 
bal, who was directing the campaign until 
the arrival of General Bazaine, marched up- 
on Oaxaca, and inflicted disaster after dis- 
aster upon our troops, until they were 
obliged to shut themselves behind the ill- 
81 



•PORFIEIO DIAZ 

defended walls of Oaxaca, which was now 
formally besieged. 

The besieging army numbered 10,000 men, 
well disciplined and well equipped, the be- 
sieged barely 2000, most of whom had been 
reduced to a state of demoralization by their 
continued defeats. Desertions were of daily 
occurrence, and at last there was no alterna- 
tive but surrender. General Diaz presented 
himself entirely alone before Bazaine's camp, 
saying that he gave himself up a prisoner and 
asked no guarantees of any kind for himself, 
only for his troops. Why did he take this 
step, which has been so much criticised by 
his enemies ? Because he no longer had suf- 
ficient resources to continue resistance; be- 
cause his forces were demoralized and ready 
to rebel against him. He knew that they 
were plotting to assassinate him in order to 
put an end to the siege, and that they were 
disposed to go over to the enemy. This was 
undoubtedly the actual state of affairs at 
that time. 

82 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

Bazaine took possession of Oaxaca on Feb- 
ruary 9, 1865, and General Diaz was sent to 
Puebla, where he was imprisoned in the Con- 
vent of La Compania, until the night of Sep- 
tember 20th, during which he escaped in a 
bold and truly romantic fashion, if one may 
be permitted to use this phrase. The fugi- 
tive fled from Puebla, accompanied only by 
a single individual, and proceeded with the 
greatest possible speed to Coayuca, where 
the guerrilla chief, Bernardino Garcia, await- 
ed him with fourteen men. 

At this point in his life, the period of Diaz's 
wonderful success begins. On the follow- 
ing day (September 22d), he surprised, with 
his fourteen men, the garrison of Tehuit- 
zingo, took away their arms, reorganized 
into a company of forty men, and started for 
Piaxtla. There he defeated a squadron of 
cavalry (September 23d), which was dis- 
patched against him from Acatlan. He took 
their arms and horses, and proceeded rapidly 
in the direction of the State of Guerrero. In 
83 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

Tlapa, Colonels Cano and Segura joined him 
with a picket of sixty men. 

Bazaine dispatched a party of 200 infan- 
try and fifty cavalry in pursuit of Diaz, under 
the command of Visoso. Diaz surprised his 
pursuers on October 1st and defeated them 
completely, killing forty men and taking 
many prisoners and a considerable number 
of arms, besides a large sum of money, which 
he used as a nucleus for the commissariat of 
the Army of the East. On December 2d he 
again encountered Visoso at Comitlipa, and 
completely annihilated his forces. 

Diaz began the year of 1866 with the vic- 
tory of Tlaxiaco against Triujeque (January 
6th). On February 25th he fought General 
Jose Maria Ortega in " Lo de Soto " ; on 
April 14th he again defeated Triujeque in 
Putla; on September 5th he put Virikar to 
flight in the battle of Huajuapam ; on the 23d 
of the same month, he routed a column of 
Austrians at Nochixtlan, in which fight the 
Austrian commander, Count Ganz, was killed. 
84 



PEEIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

On October 13th. occurred the first of his 
great victories, that of " Miahuatlan," in 
which. Oronoz and Testard were defeated; 
on the 18th occurred the second, even more 
brilliant and glorious for Mexico, that of 
" La Carbonera " ; and on the 31st he took 
the city of Oaxaca, which for some time he 
had been besieging. 

All this he accomplished with the nucleus 
of fourteen men of Bernardino Garcia, to 
which he had added daily. His force con- 
sisted of 700 men when he fought the battle 
of Miahuatlan. He began to organize his 
army in Oaxaca with the first-class muni- 
tions of war which he had captured, and 
closed the year 1866 by defeating Remigio 
Toledo in the action of " La Chitova." 

The year 1867 was destined to bring great 
renown to Diaz. Already the French army 
was retiring after four years of bloody and 
useless struggle. Porfirio Diaz commenced 
his advance toward the center of the country 
during the first fortnight of February, and 
85 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

had his headquarters established in the Villa 
de Acatlan when Mr. E. Burnouf, Maximil- 
ian's emissary, presented himself and made 
tempting proposals, looking toward the ar- 
rangement of a trnce, by which a cessation 
of hostilities might be arranged during the 
retreat of the Archduke Maximilian from 
the Capital to Vera Cruz, where he intend- 
ed to embark. The Republican commander, 
however, refused to make any such arrange- 
ment on the ground that, as commander-in- 
chief of the army, which had been entrusted 
to him by the government of the Republic, he 
could have no other relations with the Arch- 
duke than those which the code of military 
laws permitted with a leader of the enemy. 

Mariscal Bazaine, now converted into an 
implacable enemy of Maximilian, also ap- 
proached Diaz, through the mediation of Don 
Carlos Fiel, who proposed that arrangements 
be made by which Diaz should occupy the 
Capital. He further offered to sell him arms, 
equipment, and munitions of war. But Diaz 
86 



PEEIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

also refused to enter into negotiations with 
Bazaine. 

The Eepublican leader continued his 
march, constantly increasing his ranks with 
the various parties which he met on the way. 
On March 8th he arrived before Puebla with 
3,000 men under his command. The place 
was well fortified, and it seemed unheard-of 
rashness to attempt to take it with such 
meagre resources. 

At that time the Eepublican General Mari- 
ano Escobedo was besieging Queretaro, the 
place in which Maximilian had shut himself 
with his best generals. President Juarez 
thought, apparently with good reason, that 
the denouement of the Imperial drama de- 
pended upon the capture of Queretaro, and 
he tried to concentrate upon the place the 
greatest possible number of forces. With 
this in view, he ordered General Diaz to 
send troops to Queretaro. This order the 
young commander obeyed immediately, dis- 
patching the forces of the Second District 
7 87 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

of tlie State of Mexico and a brigade from 
Puebla, under the command of General Juan 
N. Mendez ; he further arranged that General 
Riva Palacio, who was then in Toluca, should 
join this division with the troops under his 
command. 

Fortunately, a few days after this, the 
Division of the South formed a junction with 
the Army of the East, and General Escobedo 
detached General Guadarrama with the cav- 
alry, as he considered it unnecessary in the 
siege of Queretaro. 

Diaz at once undertook to capture Puebla 
by means of minor engagements. He suc- 
ceeded in occupying successively the follow- 
ing points : Santiago, Molino de Huitzotitla, 
the barracks of San Marcos, the Hospicio and 
the Convent of "La Merced." By March 
13th, he held possession of all these places, 
but, in the meantime. General Leonardo 
Marquez, Viceroy of the Empire, had suc- 
ceeded in making a sortie from Queretaro, 
with orders from Maximilian to reach the 
88 



PEEIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

Capital, there raise an army, return to his 
aid, and inaugurate a counter-siege. Mar- 
quez is a man of coarse antecedents and cruel 
nature, but a bold and intelligent soldier. He 
reached the Capital, and in a few days organ- 
ized an army of 5,000 men and a large con- 
tingent of artillery. Marquez has been much 
criticised for his conduct on this occasion. 
It has been maintained that his duty as a sol- 
dier was to start at once for Queretaro to aid 
his sovereign, as he had been ordered to do. 
But Marquez was not merely a soldier : he 
was also a general, and he thought that the 
forces he had raised were not sufficient for 
the business in hand, and, furthermore, that 
there was in Puebla plenty of war material ; 
that the continuous advance of Porfirio Diaz, 
his military genius, his dash and drive, as- 
sured his triumph over the besieged; that 
Diaz would then strengthen his army by the 
war material which Puebla would furnish; 
that he would march with all speed upon the 
city of Mexico, which he would find ungar- 
89 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

risoned ; that he would take the Capital with- 
out resistance and proceed afterwards upon 
Queretaro. Therefore the resourceful Vice- 
roy decided with much prudence and faultless 
military judgment, to fall upon the forces of 
Diaz, which were decimated and worn out by 
daily combats, defeat them, and force them 
to give up the siege, increase his army in 
Puebla, and then hasten to the aid of Quere- 
taro, with a great army, at the same time 
leaving his rear covered. Consequently, 
Marquez started for Puebla, and the news 
struck consternation into the hearts of the 
principal Republican leaders. 

General Diaz called a council of war to 
decide what should be done. Several officers 
were of the opinion that it would be better 
to retreat than to expose the army to certain 
defeat. Others wished to go out to meet 
Marquez, and, if they defeated him, to return 
to Puebla. Justo Benitez, General Diazes 
secretary, made it evident that retreat would 
be worse than a defeat, because it would de- 
90 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

moralize their forces, and make it necessary 
to again reorganize them; that to go out to 
fight Marquez would be pure rashness, be- 
cause in an open field the superiority would 
lie entirely with the Viceroy; therefore the 
only remaining recourse was to stake all 
upon the immediate assault of Puebla, be- 
fore the arrival of Marquez ; that if the city 
fell, as was to be expected, they might then 
march out to engage Marquez in the open; 
if, on the other hand, they did not take 
Puebla, there would still be time to gain the 
mountains. These ideas of Justo Benitez 
really emanated from General Diaz. Beni- 
tez was merely the expounder of the care- 
fully matured plan of the brave General. 

The plan was adopted and the necessary 
preparations for the attack were made at 
once and with the greatest secrecy, for it 
was considered better that the troops should 
not know what was to take place, until the 
moment for action arrived. A feint at break- 
ing camp was made, the baggage being moved 
91 



POEFIEIO DIAZ 

to the rear of San Juan Hill, and measures 
to secure the retreat were ordered. It must 
have been about twelve o'clock at night, on 
April 1st, when General Ignacio Alatorre, 
conunander of the First Division of Infan- 
try, by an arrangement of General Diaz, 
ordered the maneuvering for the assault. 
Thirteen columns were formed. At three 
o'clock on the morning of the 2d, there arose 
upon San Juan Hill the flames of an enor- 
mous bonfire. This was the signal for the 
attack. The commanders of the thirteen col- 
umns threw themselves with the courage of 
desperation upon the entrenchments of the 
enemy, and in the darkness performed the 
most sublime acts of heroism which our his- 
torians have ever recorded. 

When day broke, the streets were strewn 
with corpses, and among the dead were sev- 
eral officers of the attacking columns; the 
trenches were deserted, the enemy van- 
quished, and the forces of the Eepublicans 
were converging upon the principal square 
92 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

of Puebla, cheering the leader of the Army 
of the East, acclaiming him the reigning hero 
of that superb day, without equal in the an- 
nals of our history. 

Diaz did not lose an instant. The forts 
" Guadalupe " and " Loretto," which com- 
manded the city, still remained in the hands 
of the enemy. It was necessary to capture 
them forthwith before the arrival of Mar- 
quez. " Loreto " surrendered on the night 
of the 3d, and a few hours later " Guada- 
lupe " capitulated unconditionally. 

On the 3d, Diaz had given orders that the 
cavalry should be kept on the march, watch- 
ing for Marquez. General Diaz now rapidly 
reorganized his army, incorporating in it the 
soldiers whom he had just conquered, a very 
common practice in Mexico; he then moved 
forward in the direction of Apizaco, to meet 
the Imperialist General, who was closely fol- 
lowed by General Guadarrama, with the 
4,000 dragoons sent by General Escobedo 
from Queretaro ; this saved the situation ; for 
93 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

even with the addition of the forces which 
General Diaz had recruited from Puebla, 
his numbers were inferior to those of Mar- 
quez. 

Diaz ordered Colonel Lalanne to engage 
Marquez from the front until he himself 
should come up and be able to act in conjunc- 
tion with Guadarrama. Lalanne, who is to- 
day almost forgotten, though he deserves an 
epic poem, fought with the utmost heroism; 
was repeatedly routed, but as frequently re- 
formed and continued the struggle, not with 
any hope of winning, but simply to carry out 
orders. Marquez continued to advance until 
he reached the ranch of San Pedro Notario, 
where some squadrons of cavalry from the 
Valley of Mexico opposed him. The after- 
noon of the 8th closed with Marquez at the 
ranch of San Lorenzo, where General Diaz 
attacked him on the 9th, but, unfortunately, 
a terrible storm prevented him from follow- 
ing up his victory. Marquez took advantage 
of the darkness to fall back, but the retreat 
94 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

soon degenerated into a rout, as the Repub- 
lican cavalry followed him up indef atigably 
from San Cristobal to Texcoco. The Im- 
perialists, however, fought bravely and fell 
without asking quarter. Marquez immedi- 
ately took refuge in the city of Mexico, and 
on April 12th General Diaz laid siege to the 
place. On June 20th, the Capital surren- 
dered, at the moment when the Republican 
columns were preparing for the attack, twen- 
ty-four hours after the execution of Max- 
imilian, Miramon, and Mejia, in Queretaro, 
which had been in the possession of General 
Escobedo since May 15th. 

Such is the history of the glorious cam- 
paign which placed General Diaz on the very 
pinnacle of fame. It might be said of the 
young commander that from the day he es- 
caped from Puebla to that on which he took 
possession of the Capital, his country's 
boundaries were extended at every step of 
his horse, to paraphrase the words of Fernan- 
dez Gonzalez regarding the Cid Compeador. 
95 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

Whatever envy and party hatred may say 
to the contrary, this campaign was a great 
one, and the assault of Puebla on April 2d 
was sublime. It may not have been in ac- 
cordance with military science, but it cer- 
tainly exemplified to the highest degree the 
art of war, and it was not science that won 
the victory, but courage. Furthermore, in 
spite of all assertions to the contrary, this 
really was the decisive action of the whole 
campaign; for if General Diaz had been de- 
feated, or if he had retreated, Marquez would 
have brought aid to Queretaro, and the war 
would have been prolonged indefinitely. I do 
not believe that the cause of the Empire 
would ever have triumphed, but its existence 
would have been prolonged, and the anxiety 
and drain upon the vital energies of the 
country would have continued. This was 
the culminating act of heroism of the honest 
Oaxacan, and it demonstrated clearly his ex- 
traordinary energy, resourcefulness, persist- 
ence, bravery, and disinterestedness. 
96 



PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 

On June 22d, the day after the occupation 
of the Capital, Diaz sent a communication to 
the Minister of War, placing the city at his 
disposition, and stating that, as he no longer 
considered it necessary to retain the plenary 
powers with which he had been invested, he 
tendered his resignation from the office of 
General in Chief of the Army of the East. 
General Diaz paid over to the government 
$315,000, which remained in the treasury of 
the army after all expenses had been paid; 
an example of honorable dealing unparalleled 
in Mexico up to that time, and a proof of the 
ability he had shown in raising and disburs- 
ing the funds. 

General Diaz retired alone to a small coun- 
try estate called " La Noria," in the State of 
Oaxaca, which had been presented to him by 
his countrymen. It was at this time that he 
received the title of Cincinnatus. " Little 
remains to the greatest of men if virtue for- 
sakes them," says Plutarch. Porfirio Diaz, 
as soldier, administrator, and citizen, and as 
97 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

a private individual, united all the requisites 
demanded by the Roman historian for the 
full measure of a hero. In modestly with- 
drawing into seclusion, he stood out in relief 
all the more. 



CHAPTER V 

DIAZ AS A KEVOLUTIONAKY LEADER 

GENERAL DIAZ'S character, the re- 
, nown which he had acquired as a 
brave, loyal, and intelligent soldier; 
the modesty which he showed after the tri- 
umph of the Republic over the Empire; his 
proverbial honesty and consummate skill in 
administering the government of the Eastern 
states, entrusted to him by President Juarez 
during the long campaign through which 
they were under his exclusive control; the 
popularity which his generous conduct had 
won for him, his youth, his political princi- 
ples, his patriotism, his prudence and energy, 
all combined to make him the natural head of 
the party, which I will call "Progressive." 
Around him were grouped the younger and 
more ambitious men, the impatient Liberals, 
the soldiers who had served under him, both 
99 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

the professional Revolutionaries and those 
who in good faith desired active progress, and 
even many Imperialists, who could not brook 
Juarez. They formed a heterogeneous party, 
as far as the number of its groups was con- 
cerned, but a homogeneous one, in the com- 
mon aspirations which it saw personified in 
the person of its leader. 

When the first general elections took place, 
after the restoration of the Republic, the 
Liberal party was already divided into three 
groups, made up of the personal followers of 
Juarez, Lerdo de Tejada, and Porfirio Diaz. 
Beyond a doubt, all the prominent men in 
these groups believed that patriotism de- 
manded the reelection of Juarez, in order to 
give him, by this action, a vote of thanks, and 
to show their appreciation of his devoted 
labors in the defense of the country and its 
institutions. But apparently they considered 
that their moral obligation ended there; for, 
immediately after his reelection, their polit- 
ical passions broke forth in Congress, in the 
100 



A EEVOLUTIONAEY LEADER 

press, and in public utterance, making deeper 
than ever the division between the before- 
mentioned groups, which now began to take 
on the nature of separate organizations. 

The group under Juarez became conserva- 
tive in the literal sense of the term ; that is, 
its members put forth all their energies to 
maintain the new order of things unchanged 
and to see that the existing system was 
perpetuated with Juarez permanently in 
power. 

Lerdo de Tejada's group decided upon 
evolution, believing in the existing order as 
a basis, but holding the opinion that it must 
be amplified, and, above all, that the power 
should change hands and an entirely new 
administration be elected. This group, how- 
ever, conspired in a manner more or less 
covert. 

The group under Diaz was radical. It 

wished to change everything, and became 

known as " The Party of Regeneration." 

Naturally, it was the most active, the most 

101 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

impatient, the most fiery of the three, and 
ended by becoming revolutionary. 

In 1871, the time for the next elections, 
the three parties threw themselves into the 
struggle with determination, each one put- 
ting forth a perfectly definite programme. 
Juarez won, but did not obtain an absolute 
majority at the polls. 

Lerdo de Tejada used all his diplomacy to 
convince Juarez that it was his duty, in the 
interest of public tranquillity, to resign the 
presidency before Congress assembled as 
the Electoral College, to decide in the last 
appeal which candidate should be proclaimed 
elected.^ 

Juarez answered him with firmness that 
the law and his duty prohibited such a step, 

» In Mexico, the election of a president is indirect and of the 
second grade. In the first grade, the citizens choose electors; 
in the second grade, the electors constituting the Electoral 
College of each district vote for their candidate. In due 
time. Congress makes a count of the votes cast in all parts of 
the country and declares elected president the candidate who 
has obtained an absolute majority, that is, more than half 
of the total number of electoral votes. 

If no candidate has received an absolute majority. Con- 

102 



A EEVOLUTIONAEY LEADER 

and that, if Congress proclaimed him pres- 
ident, he would maintain the office with reso- 
luteness and honor as long as life remained, 
respecting in this juncture, as he always had, 
the public wish, expressed through legitimate 
channels. Lerdo de Tejada abandoned diplo- 
macy and plotted in Congress. 

The Diaz party did not wish to await the 
result of the vote in Congress, for they had 
discounted it in advance, and decided that, in 
view of the wire-pulling that would be done, 
they possessed neither the numbers nor the 
political experience necessary for victory in 
a struggle of this kind. Therefore they 
started, on October 1, 1871, the ill-advised 
revolution of "La Ciudadela" (the citadel 
of the city of Mexico), which was instantly 
crushed by Juarez. 

This revolution, suppressed in blood by 
General Eocha, the state of excitement, the 

gress then makes an election (of the third grade) by vote of 
an absolute majority of the Deputies present, but their choice 
is restricted to those candidates who have obtained the largest 
number of votes in the elections by districts. 

8 103 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

urgent appeals of the Diaz party, and the 
obligations already entered into by General 
Diaz with his partisans, forced him to emerge 
from retirement, and assume the role of 
leader. Diaz made public, on November 
10th, the " Plan de la Noria," in which he 
maintained that a call to arms was neces- 
sitated by the danger to the national institu- 
tions caused by the repeated reelections, 
accomplished through the violent and un- 
lawful action of the Federal Executive; by 
the horrible massacres of Merida, Atexcatl, 
Tampico, Barranca del Diablo, and La Ciu- 
dadela; by the incompetence of some, the 
favoritism of others, and the corruption of 
all. In General Diaz's Revolutionary procla- 
mation, the reelection of a president was 
absolutely forbidden and other reforms to 
the Constitution were proposed. 

All revolutionary proclamations are ex- 
aggerated. This must of necessity be so from 
their very nature; they are conceived and 
brought forth by unrestrained passions, when 
104 



A REVOLUTIONAEY LEADER 

the minds of their authors have reached the 
highest point of excitement, and the public 
is carried away by extremes of opinion. It 
follows, therefore, that such plans, although 
put forth in the utmost good faith, exagger- 
ate the defects of the Government which they 
are designed to overthrow, and make it ap- 
pear an insupportable disgrace for the coun- 
try to tolerate, without taking into account 
the difficulties which these very Revolution- 
aries themselves have created in the time of 
conspiracy which always precedes revolu- 
tion. This state of affairs makes the acts of 
the Government, which are prompted merely 
by the instinct of self-preservation, seem vio- 
lent and tyrannical, although they may be 
necessary for the maintenance of order or 
more or less justifiable as acts of reprisal. 
The revolutionists also put into their pro- 
gramme of improvement alluring promises, 
almost always impossible of fulfillment; not 
with deliberate intention to deceive, but be- 
cause they really hope to carry out the high 
105 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ideals which an aspiring sjDirit holds before 
their eyes, thus preventing them from seeing 
the difficulty, nay, even the impossibility of 
carrying out at all fully the promises which 
they have made. 

The task of the revolutionary party al- 
ways elicits more sympathy than that of the 
government. The former makes use of the 
eloquence of passion, which finds a response 
in all classes, even the lowest ; while the lat- 
ter finds itself confined to the language of 
reason, which is only appreciated by the edu- 
cated classes. 

Moreover, in politics, accusation is easier 
than justification. The former always mas- 
querades under the guise of Liberty, and 
makes an appeal to the sentiments of civil 
courage and exalted altruism, or at least to 
the spirit of solidarity. The party in power 
always appears open to suspicion and tainted 
by selfish interests, which they are striving 
to defend with cunning and sophistry. A 
candidate, as a revolutionary leader, can 
106 



A EEVOLUTIONARY LEADER 

make a boast of radical and extreme opin- 
ions, because he is without responsibility 
and speaks to a party whose desires he 
knows and is willing to flatter. But such 
artifices are not open to a government, be- 
cause its responsibilities are fixed and bind- 
ing. It must appeal to the entire nation; 
it is the representative of law and order. 

The revolution of " La Noria " suffered 
serious disasters because of lack of prepara- 
tion, organization, and cohesion. There were 
too many leaders, and each one acted inde- 
pendently. In war, nothing is so prejudicial 
as too many commanders. 

Upon an exhaustive examination of the life 
of General Diaz, moreover, it is evident that 
the favorable outcome of his projects has 
been entirely due to his own individual power 
of accomplishment. His officers have rarely 
been successful when operating at a distance 
from him. His presence alone, like that of 
Caesar and Napoleon, was worth an army; 
and, like Frederick the Great, he has shown 
107 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

himself so rich in resources that he has as- 
tounded everyone by rising from the deepest 
abyss of apparently insurmountable difficul- 
ties to the topmost pinnacle of success. 

The issue between the Revolutionary Party 
and the Government was decided by the death 
of Juarez, on July 14, 1872. Lerdo de Tejada, 
who was at that time President of the Su- 
preme Court, took upon himself the office of 
Vice-President of the Republic, and thus as- 
sumed the inheritance of the " Great Pa- 
triot." » 

In several of my works upon this period 
of Mexican history, I have sketched the char- 
acter of Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. He 
was a man of great talent, of extraordinary 
learning, possessed of all the qualities neces- 
sary to make a great minister, such as Rich- 
elieu, Cavour, or Bismarck, but quite lacking 
in those which a chief executive must have. 
History is full of such examples. 

'At that time the position of President of the Supreme 
Court carried with it that of Vice-President of the Republic. 

108 



A REVOLUTIONARY LEADER 

In order that my readers may better mider- 
stand the incidents to which I am about to 
refer, I must here sketch again the charac- 
teristics of this distinguished statesman. 
Lerdo de Tejada was a man who had been 
irritated rather than disciplined by the vicis- 
situdes of life. He looked at everything with 
skepticism, and always held the attitude of 
uncertainty toward the outcome of every- 
thing. To him, principles were only the ar- 
tifices under which ambition lurked. He did 
not sympathize with the aspirations of his 
time, as the genuine political leader must. He 
gave no place to sentiment or ideals, and per- 
sistently refused to see in men anything but 
acts of self-interest, never theories nor con- 
victions. He was a mixture, strange as it 
may seem, of persistence and changeable- 
ness. 

On assuming power, he committed two 
grave errors through his failure to recognize 
the significance of the actual position of af- 
fairs from the historic and sociological stand- 
109 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

point; he did not pay any attention to the 
aspirations of the nation, and he failed to 
appreciate the strength of the Diaz party. 
He did not understand the value of General 
Diaz as an ally, nor what it would mean to 
have him as an enemy. He did not know how 
to preserve, much less to augment, his party. 
He made no approach to the opposition 
party, and no attempt to attract it to his side. 
He persisted in surrounding himself with the 
officers of the Juarez administration, in spite 
of the fact that he considered them incapable, 
and was afraid of them, even though he held 
a low estimation of their powers. He was an 
eminent logician of the fatalistic school, a 
school which makes the irreparable mistake 
of ignoring the logic of facts ; and, most seri- 
ous of all, he failed to understand that in 
politics conditions are more dangerous than 
doctrines, because they are possessed of a 
more irresistible logic. 

Lerdo was like Juarez, in that he was a 
most vigorous advocate of civil administra- 
110 



A EEVOLUTIONARY LEADER 

tion as opposed to militarism. But Juarez, 
a better judge of men and things, and of the 
tendencies of the times, instead of opposing 
directly and openly the military faction, drew 
it to him, and controlled it. Thus it hap- 
pened that he numbered among his most de- 
voted followers such leaders as Ignacio 
Mejia, Eocha, Alatorre, Ceballos, Alejandro 
Garcia, and others. Lerdo, less practical, did 
not understand how to hide his aversions, 
and soon found himself without a single 
leader identified with him. It is true that 
some men served him loyally, but Juarez was 
served with enthusiasm as well as loyalty. 

When Lerdo came into power, through the 
death of Juarez, he of necessity accepted a 
double mission: first, to allay the nation's 
irritation, and quench the smoking torches of 
revolution ; second, to guide the country into 
the paths of progress, and to develop its 
riches. I thought for a considerable time 
that the situation which Lerdo found when 
he became president was too great for his 
111 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

powers, and that the Government was more 
despotic than he himself wished it to be. But 
I was mistaken. The situation was simply 
this: his peculiar traits of character made 
him unfitted to govern. 

Lerdo inaugurated his administration by 
proclaiming amnesty to the Revolutionarists, 
who thought that patriotism impelled them to 
lay down their arms. General Diaz himself 
accepted this amnesty as a sacrifice to his 
country's welfare. Lerdo thought this act 
conclusive, and eliminated the Diaz party as 
a factor in his political problem, instead of 
regarding it as an important element. Jua- 
rez could not bring about peace for reasons 
which I have fully explained in my book, 
dedicated to " The Great Republican," ^ but 
Lerdo might soon have done so, if he had 
conciliated the opposing groups of Liberals. 

When the presidential elections took place, 
Lerdo was the only candidate, and won an 

* Principally because we Porfirists, with oiir continual 
revolutions, would not permit him to do so. 

112 



A EEVOLUTIONARY LEADER 

easy victory. Even the Reactionaries voted 
for him, though they acted upon a vain hope, 
as the future showed. Thus it was that Ler- 
do, elevated to the presidency by the death of 
Juarez, and confirmed in that position by the 
popular vote, found himself without enemies ; 
the Juarez party, having lost its leader, had 
no further reason for existence ; force of cir- 
cumstances obliged them to dissolve, and its 
scattered members were under the necessity 
of making new party affiliations or raising a 
new standard. But Lerdo committed the 
blunder of retaining to a man the ministers 
of Juarez's cabinet. 

The Lerdist party took their leader's tri- 
umph for their own, and were disposed to 
make liberal concessions to the Porfirists ^ 
and to take in the orphaned Juarists, in order 
to strengthen themselves and become a na- 

iThe Diaz party is called in Mexico the Porfirist party, 
but I have more frequently used the former phrase, because it 
more nearly conforms to Anglo-Saxon usage. It is more 
convenient, however, to use " Porfirist " when referring to 
individuals, as " Dfazist " would be an impossible word. 

113 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

tional party; but Lerdo soon gave them to 
understand that it was one thing to be a can- 
didate and another thing to be a president. 
He made it evident that he was going to have 
his own way, because he considered the vic- 
tory his, and in no sense due to the efforts 
of his partisans. 

The Diaz party, in spite of the impatience 
which characterized it, was disposed to bide 
its time, and support Lerdo in his undertak- 
ing, on the assumption that he was patriotic, 
progressive, and honorable, and, therefore, 
would not put forth any pretensions to a re- 
election when the next term came round. 
But Lerdo undervalued his supporters, in- 
dividually and collectively, and gave them no 
share in his administration; yet, when the 
time for election again approached, he put 
himself forward as a candidate. 

The Reactionary Party and the Imperial- 
ists had remained without leaders and with- 
out a platform; many of them were buried 
in Queretaro, under the ruins of the Empire. 
114 



A REVOLUTIONARY LEADER 

They thought that Lerdo would accept them 
as one of the national contingents, and as a 
counterpoise to Jacobinism; but Lerdo re- 
pulsed them, and showed himself more of a 
reformer than Juarez himself, thus blotting 
out every shadow of hope for the Reaction- 
aries, and giving the vestiges of the Imperi- 
alist party to understand that there was no 
possible chance of their again coming into 
power. It is asserted that Lerdo had no 
thought of reelection ; that this was suggested 
by his friends, and that he let them have their 
way. The most fatal of all policies is that of 
laissez faire, for it is usually taken to mean 
that the leader does not know his own mind. 

Lerdo, at the beginning of his term, as has 
already been said, did not have a single op- 
ponent; at the end he did not have a single 
follower; he was not even himself his own 
partisan. It is certainly a fact that as pres- 
ident he was his own worst enemy. 

The Diaz party, disgusted by the tactless 
conduct of Lerdo, and cognizant of the stren- 
115 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

uous efforts that his party was making for 
his reelection, decided again to take up arms, 
and on January 5, 1876, in the town of jit- 
Ian, district of Tuxtepec, and State of Oax- 
aca, the " Plan of Tuxtepec " (Revolutionary 
Declaration) was proclaimed by Colonel 
H. Sarmiento and his associates, disavowing 
Lerdo de Tejada as president, and, conse- 
quently, all the officers of his administration. 
This plan was seconded on the 21st by Gen- 
erals Fidencio Hernandez and Juan N. Ra- 
mirez, and by the district of Ixtlan, also of 
the State of Oaxaca, and soon the Revolution 
had spread over the whole country. Lerdo 
resisted in his usual half-hearted manner, 
and his troops fought without enthusiasm. 

In spite of the disturbed state of the coun- 
try, a pretended election was held — which 
deceived no one — and Lerdo was declared 
elected. Following his usual custom, Lerdo 
let things take their course. At the eleventh 
hour, he wished to retrace his steps. He 
separated himself from the Juarez party, 
116 



A EEVOLUTIONARY LEADER 

and endeavored to resurrect the Lerdist par- 
ty, pure and simple. He changed his cab- 
inet, but not his methods. This cabinet was 
derisively called the " Carmelite Brother- 
hood," because all that it could do was to 
comfort the President during the last days 
of his expiring term. 

Jose Maria Iglesias, at that time President 
of the Supreme Court, and, therefore, also 
Vice-President of the Republic, did with 
Lerdo what Lerdo had done with Juarez. 
He foresaw clearly the approaching down- 
fall of President Lerdo de Tejada, either 
through the Revolution against him, or 
through the expiration of his legal term of 
office, on December 1, 1876. 

It was a notorious fact that there had been 
no legal election, and that the pretended re- 
election of Lerdo was therefore farcical. Not 
even the officers who were fighting for him in 
the field took it seriously. Among them the 
prevailing opinion was that their allegiance 
to President Lerdo terminated at one minute 
117 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

past twelve on December 1st, and on this ac- 
count they were called " The Decemberists." 
Meanwhile the Revolution gained ground, 
and finally, on November 15th, a decisive bat- 
tle took place on the field of Teeoac between 
the Revolutionaries, under the command of 
General Diaz, and the Lerdists, under General 
Ignacio Alatorre. Diaz won, and the war was 
virtually at an end. 

Iglesias had been mistaken. He thought 
that the question at stake was between him 
and Lerdo, and that the latter, in making a 
coup d'etat, and claiming reelection, when 
it was notorious that there had been no vot- 
ing at the polls, had put himself in the same 
position as Comonfort; that in consequence 
Iglesias himself would play the part which 
Juarez had played during the so-called 
" Three Years' War." But he did not real- 
ize that the circumstances were not the same ; 
that he had neither the power nor the repu- 
tation of Juarez, " the Reformer " ; that pub- 
118 



A REVOLUTIONARY LEADER 

lie sympathy was with General Diaz; that 
his own party was principally composed of 
estimable youths and lawyers, who were very 
talented, it is true, but consummate idealists, 
little fitted for practical action, and quite 
without followers. 

Iglesias abandoned the Capital, fearful 
that Lerdo would imprison him, and thus in- 
capacitate him from taking up the executive 
power. He set up a migratory government ; 
that is, one which changed its location every 
time danger threatened. He thought that he 
could restrain the victorious Revolutionaries 
by merely invoking the Constitution ; that the 
men who had fought so many years to gain 
possession of the Government would again 
temporarily relinquish it, and recognize the 
rights of Iglesias, which were founded on an 
order which had just been overthrown. He 
ignored the fact that a constitutional revolu- 
tion is an impossibility; that the moment a 
revolution is started, even though it be with 
the object of again putting the Constitution 
9 119 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

into force, it is, by the mere use of arms, 
placed outside the Constitution. In my judg- 
ment, Iglesias's recourse to arms to over- 
throw Lerdo, invoking a law, which had not 
yet been infringed, put him into the category 
of a Revolutionist, just as much as General 
Diaz, who was fighting in the field to pre- 
vent the accomplishment of Lerdo's design; 
in other words, his standing before the 
Constitution had been invalidated by his 
own act. 

I do not deny that Iglesias was acting in 
good faith and without personal ambition. 
He wished to constitutionalize the Revo- 
lution. 

If Iglesias had remained President of the 
Supreme Court, accepting all its conse- 
quences as Juarez did, if he had from this 
position protested against the decree which 
declared Lerdo reelected, and if, when Lerdo 
fled from the Capital, he had remained there, 
taken up the executive power, and in this 
character met the Revolution as it invaded 
120 



A EEVOLUTIONAEY LEADER 

the Capital, his position would unquestion- 
ably have been impressive, strong, and com- 
pelling; and then, perhaps, the Diaz Eevo- 
lutionists would have had to go over to him, 
uniting in one the two causes, and appeal- 
ing to the public to solve the problem by 
its vote. 

But this was not what happened. Lerdo 
fled, Iglesias moved his position, and Gen- 
eral Diaz entered the Capital with the laurels 
of victory, organized a provisional Govern- 
ment, and again took the field to fight the 
Lerdist and Iglesias parties, and thus com- 
plete his work. He established a Government 
in fact. The force which sustained Iglesias 
went over with arms and baggage to General 
Diaz or disbanded. Lerdo sailed for New 
York by way of Panama, and Iglesias sailed 
for New Orleans en route for San Francisco. 
Both then conspired from without, Lerdo for 
restoration, Iglesias for legalization, appar- 
ently without comprehending that, if they 
gave up while they were in the country, with 
121 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

considerable resources at their command, 
their midertakings from without, bereft of 
resources, was ridiculous. 

General Diaz held elections ; the public rat- 
ified the Revolution, and elected its leader 
Chief Magistrate of the Republic. Lerdo, 
in virtue of his skepticism, lived and died in 
exile. Iglesias returned to his country, say- 
ing, to quote his own words, " Grief over pub- 
lic affairs, homesickness in exile, and circum- 
stances entirely personal, made my residence 
out of the country a veritable sacrifice." 
With this statement he justified his return. 
It is true enough that his ostracism was self- 
imposed and without adequate reason, and I 
am the last person to deny him the judgment 
which he asks of impartial history in the 
following words : " Without ambitions of any 
kind, he sacrificed all to the fulfillment of 
Duty." Under these circumstances, the only 
question for the historian to discuss is 
whether Iglesias chose the best method of 
fulfilling his duty. 

122 



A REVOLUTIONARY LEADER 

To whom was the triumph of the Revolu- 
tion due? It is diflficult to give a categorical 
reply to such a question ; but I honestly think 
it was due rather to the stupidity of the Gov- 
ernment, the skepticism of Lerdo, and the 
lack of confidence of the army, than to the 
political and military skill of Greneral Diaz 
and the efforts of his followers. 

It is said that General Mejia, Juarez's 
Minister of "War, whom Lerdo had retained, 
betrayed the President. I have never en- 
tertained this belief; Mejia acted in this in- 
stance with his usual lack of perception, that 
is all. Although Mejia was a general, he was 
not a soldier ; he never had the true military 
spirit, and he did not accomplish a single 
thing of real value, but he was never dis- 
loyal. He was one of the great number of 
men who were thrust into high positions, no- 
body knows why, and retained there through 
a sort of tacit acquiescence on the part of the 
people. In my opinion, Mejia was elevated 
to this position simply because he was an 
123 



POBFIRIO DIAZ 

Oaxacan, and an old friend of President 
Juarez. Some people say that when the 
Eevolution broke out Mejia drew up an ade- 
quate plan, which was rejected by Lerdo, 
and that from that time on the Minister of 
War determined to give up completely his 
own initiative and to follow the orders of the 
President. 

The forces of the Government, although 
they always fought without confidence or en- 
thusiasm, inflicted frequent and severe de- 
feats upon the Diaz forces, without under- 
standing how to reap from these triumphs 
all the advantage possible, or even wishing 
to do so. 

As a Revolutionary leader, General Diaz 
made serious mistakes. The first he made 
at the time of the uprising against Juarez, 
by starting revolution in the South, when the 
great majority of his backing was located in 
the North ; the second he made at the time of 
the uprising against Lerdo, by going to the 
North to head the Revolutionists, when the 
124 



A EEVOLUTIONAEY LEADEE 

strength of his resources lay in the South; 
that is to say, in Oaxaca, Puebla, and Vera 
Cruz. 

After being overthrown in Icamole, Gen- 
eral Diaz fled to the United States, and from 
New Orleans went to Vera Cruz in the steamer 
" City of Havana," disguised as a Cuban 
physician. At Tampico a battalion of in- 
fantry was taken on board, and General Diaz 
thought that his incognito had become known 
and that he was lost. General Diaz threw 
himself into the sea, trusting in his skill as a 
swimmer to reach the shore. This he never 
would have succeeded in doing, because his 
strength had been much broken by an illness, 
from which he was still suffering. Fortu- 
nately he was noticed as he threw himself 
overboard, and a boat was launched, which 
undoubtedly saved him from certain death. 
The purser of the steamer "Alphonso K. 
Coney " hid the general, and thanks to his 
cleverness and the aid given him at Vera Cruz 
by General Juan de la Luz Enriquez, Agustin 
125 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

Maranon, and the brothers Alpuche, owners 
of the lighters which loaded and unloaded the 
American steamers, he was able to reach the 
shore, disguised as a sailor, mount a horse, 
and start by way of Boca del Rio for Alva- 
rado, whence he reached Oaxaca. When the 
police of Vera Cruz made a search for Gen- 
eral Diaz, he was already beyond their reach. 

In Oaxaca he organized a small army, and, 
in the mean time, succeeded in regaining his 
health. Lerdo at that time did not know how 
to make hostilities against him. With very 
poor equipment, Diaz marched toward the 
center of the Republic, and was met by Gen- 
eral Ignacio Alatorre, who came out to op- 
pose him with a strong division, consisting of 
the three arms. 

The two armies came in sight of each other 
on the ridge of Tecoac, as has already been 
said. The Government forces fought with- 
out spirit; Alatorre showed himself some- 
what sluggish, according to the military crit- 
ics ; nevertheless, he would have defeated the 
126 



A EEVOLUTIONARY. LEADER 

Eevolutionaries, if it had not been for the 
opportune arrival of General Mannel Gon- 
zalez, with a considerable force, which imme- 
diately attacked the governmental command- 
er with intrepidity, and thus gave the victory 
to the Revolutionary leader. 

The Revolution found its principal ally in 
the opposition of the press, which completely 
robbed the Government of its prestige, intro- 
duced lack of confidence and depression into 
the ranks of the army, and fired the public 
mind against what we then called " the most 
disgraceful tyranny." What a tyranny! It 
not only sanctioned liberty, but even per- 
mitted license in the press! The more ex- 
haustively one studies this period, the more 
he is confirmed in the conviction that defeat 
was due not so much to the Revolution- 
aries as to the Government, which literally 
wrought its own downfall. 



CHAPTER VI 

DIAZ AS PRESIDENT 
FIRST PERIOD 

IN several of my works already published, 
I have studied the first period of Pres- 
ident Diaz's presidency. I therefore 
find myself obliged to repeat much of 
what has already been said in my previous 
writings. 

When General Diaz came into power, he 
found himself standing before the tribunal of 
history, with a great responsibility resting 
upon him. He had fought in the name of 
progress, order, and liberty, first the Juarist, 
and then the Lerdist administration. He had 
promised the regeneration of the country, 
and his promise must be fulfilled. He must 
do something great — so great that it would 
justify his former position. First of all, it 
was necessary to dominate the situation com- 
128 



DIAZ AS PRESIDENT 

pletely; to remove whatever obstacles were 
placed in his way; to crush all illegitimate 
ambitions; to fuse into one all antagonistic 
elements, and to electrify a society which as 
yet had neither ideals nor political faith. Un- 
less he succeeded in doing all this ; unless he 
could carry out his programme completely, 
he would remain ii^. the category of a common 
revolutionist, actuated by criminal ambition. 
If every man is responsible to himself for 
the wise choice of a business or profession, 
it is certainly still more true that he is re- 
sponsible to his country for the position he 
assumes in politics. 

General Diaz came into power under the 
most unfavorable auspices, for although he 
was supported by a strong party, it was 
nothing more than a party of opposition, 
and not homogeneous. As is the case with 
all revolutionary groups, it was possessed 
of considerable force, but included a horde 
of undisciplined followers, because, during 
the time of actual struggle, it was neces- 
129 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

sary to welcome all sorts and conditions 
of men. 

He found the treasury empty, credit gone, 
lack of confidence everywhere, international 
relations broken or suspended, and grave 
complications with the United States im- 
pending. To meet so many dangers, and to 
save the nation's honor, demanded excellent 
judgment, faultless tact, calmness, firmness, 
and patriotism. 

Lerdism had been conquered, but not an- 
nihilated. Some of Lerdo's commanders and 
officers remained loyal to his party and re- 
fused to recognize the new order of things. 
Some retired to their homes and took up their 
work. Others plotted, but always unsuccess- 
fully, either from lack of skill or because the 
" Cause of Eestoration " no longer carried 
any prestige, or, perhaps, merely because so- 
ciety was heartily tired of internal disorders. 
Nevertheless, the Lerdists continued to be a 
source of anxiety, and to hamper the free 
action of the Government. 
130 



DIAZ AS PRESIDENT 

One of the most solemn promises of the 
" Plan de Tuxtepec " was to abolish the im- 
mediate reelection of the President of the 
Eepublic and the governors of the States. 
In order to carry this provision into effect an 
amendment to the Constitution was adopted 
and ratified. This, we must remember, re- 
stricted to four years the time at General 
Diaz's disposal, and made the favorable out- 
come of his enormous undertaking extremely 
doubtful; for nothing great can be accom- 
plished in a short time. 

Fortunately, General Diaz had developed 
his powers on the field of battle. He was ac- 
customed to creating resources, organizing 
armies, and collecting war material. This 
military education was all the statesman had 
to fall back upon; but, under the circum- 
stances, it was the most appropriate and suit- 
able education he could have had — indis- 
pensable, one might even call it, considering 
the exceptional conditions under which the 
country was laboring at that time. Every- 
131 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

one knows that the science of war demands a 
wider range of knowledge than any other, and 
demands in addition a forceful genius, rich in 
resources. 

Emerson, the great American philosopher, 
has declared that man has the power to de- 
termine his own value. It is worthy of uni- 
versal acceptation, this maxim, that man can 
achieve the character which he attributes to 
himself. Let him grasp the situation, place 
himself in an irrefutable position, and all 
men will accept his pretensions. The world 
is bound to be just, though it is always pro- 
foundly indifferent to the choice of role which 
each one makes for himself. Let him be a 
hero, or a fool; it is all one to the people. 
They will surely accept the standards which 
he has raised for his own acts, the limits 
which he has set for his own personality, 
whether he trails his coward spirit in the 
dust or links it with the stars as they revolve 
in the dome of heaven. 

General Diaz had faith in himself, and 
132 



DIAZ AS PEESIDENT 

therefore inspired confidence in others. He 
believed himself capable of dominating the 
situation, and he dominated it. 

Porfirio Diaz had just completed his thir- 
ty-seventh year, and was in the full vigor of 
his physical and mental powers, when the 
people enthusiastically placed him in the 
presidential chair. 

He came into prominence when his genius 
was fully developed and when the nation was 
ready for the labors which he undertook. It 
will be generally granted, I think, that there 
is in affairs a ripening process which one 
must patiently await or his undertaking will 
fail, and happy the man who arrives at the 
propitious moment! 

Although it is true that great men always 
hold a dominating influence at any given 
moment, we must not forget that this influ- 
ence is necessarily affected by the larger cur- 
rent of their times. So that the superiority 
of these men really consists in their ability 
133 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

to perceive the trend of events and to act 
accordingly. 

It is commonly said that arriving at the 
appropriate moment is a matter of chance, 
but I do not believe it. Nothing happens by 
accident in an orderly universe, but of neces- 
sity. Historic events do not take place at 
haphazard; they unfold in obedience to a 
law which we have not yet fathomed. 

Necessity creates the instrument and the 
material to supply the thing needed. This 
is the reason that in history we always see 
the much needed man appear just at the 
right time. Necessity brings him forth, in- 
spires him, and makes him arrive at the 
crucial moment. Is the man himself con- 
scious of this compelling force ? Yes ; by in- 
tuition; therefore he does not hesitate nor 
procrastinate. 

General Diaz knew that sooner or later he 
would reach the presidency, and during the 
time that he lived in the solitude of the coun- 
try he was forming his plans of government. 
134 




GENERAL PUiiFlKIU dIaZ 1^' 1807. 



DIAZ AS PRESIDENT 

He then decided that the first step must be to 
bring about peace and enforce it at any cost, 
as that was the only condition under which 
his work would be possible. 

He well knew that he would have to meet 
the baleful vices created by revolutionary 
turbulence, so long continued that it had be- 
come a kind of second nature in our race. 
But he succeeded in solving the problem, and 
when he came into power, surrounded by so 
many professional revolutionists, he under- 
stood that the only way of escape was to keep 
them under his control. He perceived that if 
he could muster sufficient skill and judgment 
to manage them he could render them harm- 
less — even useful. 

By his success in repressing with firm hand 
the last traces of disorder, he ended this tur- 
bulent period in our history and inaugurated 
a period of evolution — an evolution which 
began with himself, by changing him from 
revolutionary leader to civil ruler, from 
soldier to politician, from politician to ad- 
10 135 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ministrator, from military liero to " Father 
of Peace." He who through the necessities 
of the situation had been the Destroyer, by 
virtue of his new undertaking became the 
Restorer. 

He planned, created, and organized. He 
began by experimenting, under the guidance 
of his intuition ; he continued by the light of 
the experience, which he was gaining and 
storing up daily; he concluded by scientific 
verification, which is the highest achievement 
of human wisdom. 

He held the conviction that the greatness 
of a nation consists not in its potential or la- 
tent energies, but in its positive and dynamic 
activities ; that is, those which manifest them- 
selves in action scientifically directed, and 
reveal themselves in deeds which contribute 
to the purposes of society. 

But these potential energies cannot be con- 
verted into dynamic energies by the will of 
any man, no matter how skillful, for the con- 
currence of other factors is necessary; such 
136 



DIAZ AS PEESIDENT 

factors, for example, as suitable material to 
work with, the right opportunity, aid from 
the general attitude of society, and time, 
always a most important factor in the devel- 
opment and strengthening process which any 
great and complicated system must undergo. 

As I have already said, Diaz began by 
establishing peace, as the first condition of 
prosperity. It is true enough that peace is a 
result, but as is the case with all effects, it 
becomes in its turn a cause. 

Much has been said both for and against 
peace, this most precious acquisition of our 
times in Mexico, each one stating his judg- 
ment as he has formed it from his own point 
of view. And, after all, peace alone means 
little. Peace, as a political term, is merely 
relative, and means public tranquillity; that 
is, a state in which there is no enemy to fight, 
either within or without. So far it is a 
merely negative condition. Peace is the ab- 
sence of war. But the word is capable of 
sustaining a further meaning. Peace is order 
J37 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

balanced by law. In this definition we find 
already the positive element. But even in 
this acceptation there is something lacking; 
there is a distinction between a mere passive 
state of peace and the live, active condition 
which we might call dynamic peace. Unques- 
tionably, under either of these two aspects, 
peace results in benefit to mankind, when 
compared with war; but there is, neverthe- 
less, a great difference between the two. The 
former brings with it in the long run enerva- 
tion and paralysis of initiative. It has the 
same effect that disuse has upon steel ; though 
the metal escapes the wearing process of use, 
still it is slowly destroyed by oxidation. 
Thus it is with the mechanical peace which is 
useful only in a period of transition, for if 
it is too long continued it becomes dangerous, 
unlawful tyranny, and order is maintained 
at the expense of liberty; order of this kind 
is really nothing more than discipline bor- 
dering on complete subjection. 
Peace of the second kind is active, positive, 
138 



DIAZ AS PRESIDENT 

dynamic. It enters into the social organism 
as an integral part; it quickens dormant en- 
ergies, promotes activity, brings out the un- 
formed, strengthens the weak, unites the 
divided, heals the sick, lifts the fallen, and 
reclaims those who have gone astray ; it leads 
all, though by different paths, to a common 
end, the betterment of society, both morally 
and materially. As the whole movement is 
based upon respect for law, respect on the 
part of the governed, making them careful 
not to misprize the law; respect on the part 
of the administration not to misuse their 
power; each side does its duty with perfect 
respect for the rights of the other. 

General Diaz was obliged to resort to 
both systems. It was absolutely necessary 
to begin by repressing lawlessness, other- 
wise the development of a peaceable and 
harmonious social order would have been 
impossible. 

Octavian peace, that of toto orbe in pace 
composito, which prepared the ground for 
139 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, and 
opened the road to Rome for the so-called 
Barbarians of the North, was not the work 
of Augustus, but the logical result of the con- 
dition of the Roman Empire. It had reached 
the stage of mortal decadence. As Rome had 
her time of aggrandizement, she had of neces- 
sity a process of decay, which ended in ex- 
tinction, as happened in the case of Egypt 
and Greece. Prostration and lethargy marked 
the beginning of the last agony. This hap- 
pens with nations just as it does with indi- 
viduals, for they also are subject to physi- 
ological laws. 

I am firmly convinced of the sincerity of 
General Diaz's intentions when he came into 
power. He was a true democrat. He had 
proved it on many occasions. He considered 
it dangerous in a democracy to continue a 
chief magistrate in power indefinitely; he 
believed that the best guarantee of public 
liberty is the periodic renewal of the men 
140 



DIAZ AS PEESIDENT 

who wield the power. For failure to carry 
out this principle General Diaz condemned 
both Juarez and Lerdo. 

In the beginning of Diaz's administration, 
the revolutionary spirit threatened to over- 
throw the new order of things. Some Lerdist 
leaders, among them those who had defended 
their chief with so little courage, whether 
from remorse or some other cause, instituted 
what they called the " Restoration." For this 
cause they plotted with little skill and less 
success. It was said that Lerdo was always 
opposed to these conspiracies, and looked 
with equal scorn upon his " posthumous * par- 
tisans " and his enemies. The Government 
at first showed a certain leniency toward 
the conspirators, but there came a time when 
it was thought necessary to chastise and ter- 
rorize these enemies of the Government. 

»The poignancy of this phrase will be missed by the 
American reader, unless he happens to remember that 
Lerdo's friends postponed vigorous action till after their 
leader was politically dead beyond the possibility of resur- 
rection. 

141 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

This was done on the frightful night of June 
25, 1879. 

On the night of the 23d of the same month, 
the Mexican gunboats Lihertad and Inde- 
pendencia happened to be anchored in Tla- 
cotalpam (State of Vera Cruz). A group of 
Alvaradians, led by one Antonio Vela, took 
possession of the Lihertad, through the con- 
nivance of some of the crew. The Lihertad 
immediately started for Alvarado before the 
Independencia could stop her. The Revolu- 
tionaries disembarked in Alvarado and sur- 
prised a picket of the Twenty-third Battalion, 
which constituted the garrison of the town, 
carried them all on board, and quickly put to 
sea, with the intention of reaching " Laguna 
del Carmen." 

This uprising in favor of the Restoration 
of Lerdo was a part of a vast conspiracy, 
which had for its principal object the capture 
of Vera Cruz. It had ramifications all over 
the country, in the large cities, and even in 
the Capital itself. Its principal leader was 
142 



DIAZ AS PRESIDENT 

General Mariano Escobedo. Cooperating 
with him were several colonels of recognized 
ability, such as Lorenzo Fernandez, Boni- 
facio Topete, Carlos Fuero, Jose B. Cuesto, 
and others of no less reputation. 

The news of the capture of the Libert ad 
was received in Vera Cruz on the 24th, brought 
by a pilot of the port named Carmona. He 
was immediately arrested by General Luis 
Mier y Teran, Governor of the State. 

Teran was a fanatical Diaz supporter. Al- 
though born in Guanajuato, he had gone to 
Oaxaca at a very early age, and was con- 
sidered an Oaxacan. He had served in the 
" Three Years' War " as a subaltern, having 
taken part in the defense of Vera Cruz when 
it was bombarded by Miramon. He was a 
big, pompous man, but very open-hearted, 
and possessed of warm sympathies. , His 
education had been very scant, and his 
courage was of the rashest kind. In Vera 
Cruz he was immensely popular among the 
lower classes, but the well-to-do never took 
143 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

him seriously as a politician, although they 
liked him very much as a man. 

Teran had served in the Army of the East, 
had taken part in the defense of Puebla when 
it was besieged by the French army, and had 
been captured and deported to France. 
On his return, he escaped from Vera Cruz 
and again joined the ranks of General Diaz. 
He was one of the heroes of April 2d. 

After the triumph of the Republic he re- 
turned to Vera Cruz and became a broker 
again, but still took an active part in all con- 
spiracies and revolutions of the Diaz party. 
In fact, he was the virtual chief of that party 
in his state. At the time of the " Plan del la 
Noria," he was Commander in Chief of the 
Revolutionaries in Oaxaca. He was defeated 
and made prisoner in San Mateo Xindihui 
by the Juarist General Loaeza. At the time 
of the " Plan de Tuxtepec," he was defeated 
and made prisoner by the Lerdist General 
Alatorre at the battle of Epatlan. Though a 
good leader of a column, he was the poorest 
144 



DIAZ AS PEESIDENT 

kind of a commander in chief. His character 
and his eccentricities won for him the name 
of " Crazy Teran." 

After General Diaz's victory in Tecoac, 
Teran regained his liberty, and was sent to 
Vera Cruz as military commander, and upon 
the establishment of the constitutional gov- 
ernment was elected Governor of the State. 
Teran lived in constant fear, not because he 
was a coward, but because he understood 
fully the supreme importance of Vera Cruz at 
that moment ; it was the key to the Republic 
and the chief source of supplies for the Gov- 
ernment. He was aware that plotting was 
going on, but he could not discover the source 
nor obtain sufficient evidence to convict the 
conspirators. 

Some days before the occurrence of the 
events which I have just described, he or- 
dered several suspects to be arrested. Among 
these was Don Vicente Capmany. They were 
handed over to me for judgment, for at that 
time I was Federal Judge of the District 
145 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

of Vera Cruz. As the authorities were un- 
able to furnish me with proofs of any kind, 
I was forced at the expiration of the trial 
to issue a mandate placing the accused at 
liberty. This put me in bad repute with 
Teran, who, though he could not question my 
party loyalty, accused me of being weak. To 
this accusation I replied that I was a judge, 
not an executioner, and could only act ac- 
cording to the law. 

On June 24th, the very day on which the 
news of the seizure of the gunboat Libertad 
came, Teran received from General Diaz de- 
tails of the plot which was being concocted 
in Vera Cruz, and a list of the persons in- 
volved. 

Teran, overrating the danger, telegraphed 
to President Diaz that there was an up- 
rising in the garrison. The President an- 
swered him in his usual laconic fashion 
" Shoot them red-handed." During the 
night Teran ordered the arrest of the men 
whose names he had on the list. The po- 
146 



DIAZ AS PEESIDENT 

lice were slow in carrying out the order, 
and the most important leaders escaped. 
These were Colonel Fernandez and Colonel 
Cueto» The police succeeded in arresting 
Jaime Eodriguez, Dr. Ramon Albert Hernan- 
dez, Antonio Ituarte, Francisco Cueto, Luis 
Alva, Lorenzo Portilla, Vicente Capmany, 
Eicardo B. Suarez, and Luis Galinie. These 
men were placed in the public prison. At 
dawn, on the morning of the 25th, in the 
midst of a great downpour, the prisoners 
were conducted (with the exception of Su- 
arez, Galinie, and Carmona) to the barracks 
of the Twenty-third Battalion. Manuel Eo- 
sello, Antonio Loredo, J. A. Eubalcaba, and 
Juan Caro-Garcia, officers of the Twenty-fifth 
Battalion, were also arrested. General Teran 
arrived at the barracks of the Twenty-third, 
and ordered the execution of the four officers 
above mentioned. Two of them, Eosello and 
Loredo, succeeded in saving their lives, 
thanks to the prayers and persuasive elo- 
quence of the Major Juvencio Eobles. Eubal- 
147 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

caba, Caro, and the other civilians already 
mentioned were executed in a summary 
manner. 

The immediate effect of this Bacchanalian 
orgy of blood was to strike terror to the 
hearts of all conspirators. That the feeling 
was deep and lasting is proved by that fact 
that it is still felt to-day, thirty years after- 
wards. It was clearly understood that revo- 
lutionists need not expect any leniency from 
the Government. In consequence, all ac- 
knowledged themselves conquered. After this 
" pacifism " ^ began. 

At the close of President Diaz's first term, 
the Diaz party understood that they had 
gone too far in prohibiting immediate reelec- 

* As there seems to be no word to convey the idea of peace 
imposed from without as distinguished from a condition due 
to inner harmony, Senor de Zayas has used the coined word 
"pacifismo," and asked to have it transposed bodily into 
English. " Pacifism " he defines as peace imposed by forcible 
means and with a tendency to absolutism. Pacification 
would not express the meaning, as Senor de Zayas wishes to 
describe a permanent, as opposed to a merely transient, con- 
dition. In another passage, he has made a further distinction 
by using the phrase " mechanical peace" as contrasted with 
" organic peace." 

148 



DIAZ AS PRESIDENT 

tion. General Diaz himself saw with dismay 
the approach of the termination of his power, 
for he had hardly more than begun to estab- 
lish the reforms he had planned. 

At this juncture, an idea occurred to him 
which would modify the effect of the law, 
without altering the letter. 

It was certainly legal to transfer the Gov- 
ernment to other hands as a sacred trust, to 
be returned after four years to President 
Diaz. The question then was, "Who would 
be a fitting man for this trust? " The name 
of Don Justo Benitez at once occurred to 
Diaz. Benitez was an Oaxacan, a man of 
profound judicial knowledge, great energy, 
and sterling character. For many years he 
had been General Diaz's only counsellor, his 
private secretary, his general secretary, and 
the actual director of administration of the 
Eastern States while they were under the 
control of General Diaz. Benitez had been, 
one might almost say, the mind of the young 
commander. On assuming power, President 
149 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

Diaz had made Benitez his highest cabinet 
officer. Benitez was a man of unquestionable 
honor and absolute loyalty. There could be 
no one better than he to carry out the re- 
gency, as the period between 1880 and 1884 
might well be called. 

After Benitez had been designated as can- 
didate, he sailed for Europe, with the inten- 
tion of making a political tour in order to 
facilitate the reopening of diplomatic rela- 
tions which had been broken off on account 
of the war with France. This absence was 
fatal to his interests, for when he returned 
the opinion of those in control had turned 
against him. 

It is said that Benitez made the mistake of 
acting as if he actually had in his hands the 
reins of power. He allowed his own person- 
ality to assert itself. This alarmed General 
Diaz and made him suspicious, with the result 
that Benitez fell from grace, never to rise 
again. He was one of the many factors elim- 
inated by our inexorable mathematician. 
150 



DIAZ AS PRESIDENT 

It was now necessary to think of some one 
else ; he must be a soldier, accustomed to dis- 
cipline, and ready to obey orders absolutely. 
General Teran, who had really been thought 
of by General Diaz before Benitez, had al- 
ready been cast aside because of the over- 
zealousness which he had shown on June 
25th. Then Diaz thought of General Don 
Manuel Gonzalez, the real hero of Tecoac. 

Gonzalez was a rough man, without educa- 
tion, without training of any kind, much less 
administrative knowledge. As a commander 
of guerrillas, he was brave to rashness. He 
had served in the ranks of the Reactionaries, 
and afterwards gone over to the Repub- 
licans at the time of the war against the 
French. He had done excellent service in his 
country's cause under the orders of General 
Diaz. Manly, forceful, and loyal, he was al- 
ways true to his word, even if he had given it 
lightly ; and in addition he was one of General 
Diaz's most fanatical partisans. 

The appointment of Gonzalez created a 
11 151 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

scandal in the Diaz party, for many of its 
members had already made formal agree- 
ments with Benitez. The incident even 
caused a ministerial crisis. However, the 
command of General Diaz was complied with, 
and Gonzalez was elected president. He came 
into office December 1, 1880. 

There are those who assert that when Gen- 
eral Diaz stepped down from the presidency, 
he vowed that if he ever became president 
again he would hold the office for life. I 
doubt the authenticity of this story, for Gen- 
eral Diaz does not make confidences of this 
kind. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BE-ELECTION OF GENEEAL DIAZ 

THE administration of General Gon- 
zalez was for the first two years a 
veritable blessing to the country. 
The former officials and commanders of the 
old army, who had served under President 
Lerdo de Tejada, and who, through pride or 
military feeling, had refused to enter the 
service during the administration of General 
Diaz, now submitted to the Government, and 
were reinstated in their grades and activ- 
ities. This did much to promote general good 
feeling in the country. Under his adminis- 
tration the great railroad lines were begun, 
and work was commenced on the improve- 
ment of the port of Vera Cruz. Commerce in- 
creased to a marked degree, and the breath of 
returning civil life was inhaled all over the 
country. But the last two years of his ad- 
153 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

ministration were extremely disastrous. In 
all branches of the Government there was 
fearful wastefulness and much scandal over 
peculations, and but for the fact that the time 
set for General Diaz's return to power was 
near at hand, we should certainly have again 
entered upon an epoch of revolution. The 
principal cause of trouble was the forced 
circulation of nickel coins and the arrange- 
ment of the English debt upon a basis which 
was at that time considered a national dis- 
grace. 

Many people thought that General Gon- 
zalez would limit his action to that of deputy 
of his predecessor and successor, but such 
was not the case. Once in power, Gonzalez 
acted entirely upon his own initiative. Gen- 
eral Diaz did not even try to exercise any in- 
fluence over him; so that Gonzalez and his 
circle were responsible for all the good and 
evil of that administration. The Gonzalez 
party wanted to work for the continuance of 
their chief in power, but he flatly refused. 
154 



EE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

His word had been given, and he was deter- 
mined to live up to it. 

The elections were held, and much enthu- 
siasm was shown for General Diaz, who was 
elected almost unanimously, for everyone 
believed that only through him could their 
legitimate hopes for better conditions be 
realized. 

When General Diaz again took up the reins 
of government, on December 1, 1884, he 
found himself compromised by the action of 
his predecessor, principally because the 
public had been aroused on account of 
the state of the treasury, the issue of 
nickel coin, and the projected rearrange- 
ment of the English debt. The storm 
of indignation had reached the breaking 
point. 

It was absolutely necessary, therefore, to 

continue enforcing, at all costs, mechanical 

peace, or, as I have already called it, the 

policy of " pacifism." Fortunately, the peo- 

155 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

pie responded, for they saw that it was their 
only hope of salvation. 

At this juncture General Diaz began the 
great work which has given him a world-wide 
reputation. General Diaz's first period was 
one of initiation and experiment; his second 
was devoted to the development of a perfectly 
conceived plan, now worked out in all its 
details. 

The people understood that four years was 
not sufficient time to complete such a work of 
reorganization. They trembled before the 
prospect of another and a different adminis- 
tration, and, impelled by public opinion. Con- 
gress repealed the Constitutional amend- 
ment which prohibited reelection. At first, 
only a second term was permitted ; but after- 
wards the very men who had originally set 
the limit of a single term reestablished the 
old regime^ which gave to the public the 
power to reelect its chief magistrate indefi- 
nitely. Thus was the work of the revolution 
of Tuxtepec brought to naught. 
156 



RE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

By enforcing discipline with an iron hand, 
General Diaz succeeded in converting the 
army from an instrument of revolution into 
a bulwark of the law, from a howling mob of 
barrack-room disturbers into guardians of the 
peace, from terrorizers of the people into 
protectors of life and property. 

Law and order was now established upon 
80 firm a basis that it gave security to the 
people, not only in the populous centers, but 
in the remote districts, and brought protec- 
tion to the dwellers in huts as well as to 
the rich in palaces. Under the vivifying in- 
fluence of peace our arid deserts were trans- 
formed into agricultural regions, and the 
great stretches of our extensive territory 
settled ; the capital of the country was be- 
coming convinced that there was a better 
field for its investment at home than abroad, 
and foreign capital was shown that from 
Mexico a greater return could be obtained, 
and actually was being obtained, than from 
any other country; our wretched bays were 
157 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

being converted into safe harbors; an iron 
network of railroads was spread over the 
country, joining the interior with the fron- 
tier, most of the towns with the capitals of 
the provinces, and all the provincial capitals 
with the metropolis and the outside world. 
The impetuous current of our rivers was be- 
ing dominated by bridges, the deep abysses 
of our canons spanned by viaducts, and 
even the mountain barriers conquered by 
tunnels. 

Peace made it possible to mine the iron and 
coal, to utilize the rivers with the turbine; 
under the influence of progress and civiliza- 
tion manufacturing plants were built, boilers 
started, smelters lighted, and great factory 
chimneys reared with their plumes of smoke, 
standing out against the sky; levers were 
opened to give passage to the restless steam 
that it might drive pistons, and thus commu- 
nicate its throbbing life to the dead machin- 
ery. One might almost say that the mechan- 
ism had been endowed with life and could 
158 



RE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

actually reason, for it seems to swell with 
pride at being made the depositary of man's 
will and intelligence, and thus inspired, it 
forges, it grinds, it hammers, it weaves, it 
spins, combines and separates, selects and 
classifies, presses and molds, polishes and 
puts the finishing touches upon all kinds of 
work. The machinery itself seems to be 
alive and to infuse its life into the workmen. 

The same is true of capital; it infuses 
life into enterprise, and by improving trans- 
portation carries the impulse to distant set- 
tlements, even reaching foreign countries in 
its beneficent work. The factory whistle re- 
places the church bell, calling men from sleep 
to their life of activity, telling the laborer 
that it is time for breakfast, giving him the 
signal to quit work and seek his grateful and 
well-earned rest, and again calling him the 
next morning. 

The plow furrows the earth, the sower sows 
the grain, the irrigating ditch waters it, the 
sun warms it into life, the seed germinates, 
159 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

and the plant spreads its leaves and blos- 
soms, the smiling promise of the autumn 
crop. The reaper cuts the grain and fills the 
barn with the remunerative harvest. On the 
other hand the flocks and herds graze upon 
the mountain sides and chew their cud in 
tranquillity under the shade of protecting 
trees, growing the tender flesh which is to 
serve us as food, the wool from which we 
make our clothes, and the hide which later 
industry will work over and turn into articles 
to satisfy a thousand needs of our complex 
civilization. Farther away in the mountains 
the mining industry is continually making 
more scientific its processes, more perfect its 
organization, and more economical its busi- 
ness methods; it makes the depths of the 
earth pay an equal or even greater tribute 
than the soil to the private individual and 
to the public at large. 

Under the influence of peace, the postal 
facilities have been properly organized, and 
the wires of the telephone and the telegraph 
160 



EE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

stretched to the borders of the Republic; all 
the cities and towns, and even the smallest 
villages, are linked together by rapid, cheap, 
and convenient service, which greatly con- 
tributes to national unification. This facili- 
tates trade, it brings us together, and makes 
us of one mind. We suffer with all in a com- 
mon grief, we rejoice with a general thanks- 
giving. The cry for help is heard, no matter 
how remote the spot, where desperation 
raises it, and relief is sent to any part of the 
country by the national spirit of charity. 
Public instruction follows in its wake, the 
trained teacher taking the place of the priest, 
converting the school into a center for the 
growth and expansion of the mind ; replacing 
the brutal system of former times and the 
out-of-date methods; substituting for the 
idea that to spare the rod spoils the child the 
belief that more can be accomplished by per- 
suasion and kindness than by force. 

The social position of woman has been 
raised without undervaluing her womanliness 
161 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

or overlooking the fact that she was destined 
by nature first of all and above all to play the 
noble part of wife and the sublime and sacred 
role of mother. ^ 

The administration of justice has been im- 
proved, because there has been time to study 
problems and try experiments in order to 
correct and complete the law, to make a bet- 
ter distribution of the duties of administra- 
tion, and to pay the officers more liberally, 
to increase the number of courts and the num- 
ber of judges for each court. 

Charity has increased in sincerity and in 
scope it has grown into philanthropy as far 
as the public administration is concerned, and 
even in the action of individuals. I do not 
mean to imply by this, however, that the well 
of individual charity has run dry, for com- 
passion is instinctive in our race, and charity 
is fostered by our religion. We should never 
forsake it, no matter what some people say, 
because there are griefs which can only 
be consoled by the individual, and miseries 
162 



RE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

for the alleviation of which it is right that 
personal aid should be sought. 

A country without well-organized finances 
is a building without a foundation. The un- 
derlying basis of the bettered social condi- 
tions which we now enjoy is the public 
treasury. 

The great problem which General Diaz had 
to solve was this: Was the administration 
bad because of the lack of resources, or were 
^ resources lacking because of bad administra- 
tion? Diaz's answer was definite and clear. 
These evils are intimately connected, so in- 
timately that one cannot exist without the 
other, and, being interdependent, they must be 
remedied simultaneously. But after solving 
the problem in principle it was necessary to 
solve it in practice, and General Diaz began 
the process of national evolution by first es- 
tablishing order, method, and a wise economy 
in the public administration. 

The conditions which necessitated econ- 
omy had already been made and imposed 
163 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

upon the country in such a manner that it 
was impossible to avoid the issue. It was 
imperative to create resources to relieve the 
situation. Up to that time, owing to the ex- 
ceptional circumstances through which our 
country had been passing, the fiscal system 
consisted in collecting the little which was 
available and in avoiding payment of the 
large amounts which the coimtry owed; or 
in seeking loans to tide over the necessities 
of the moment, and paying when it could with 
exorbitant interest. But General Diaz in- 
augurated new methods. He established a 
reasonable system of taxation, which was in- 
creased little by little; he recognized and 
consolidated all debts ; arranged for the pay- 
ment of interest, and established a sinking 
fund. He succeeded in raising large loans, 
under extraordinarily favorable conditions, 
considering the circumstances. The purpose 
of these loans was to develop the resourceo 
of the country, to unlock its riches, and 
thereby increase the Governments revenue. 
164 



RE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

The best possible proof of the President's 
wisdom is that, although the Government's 
expenses have increased from year to year, 
there has always been a surplus, and that, in 
spite of this yearly increase in the cost of 
administration, the Government has been 
supported without detriment to the pro- 
ductive and consumptive capacity of the pop- 
ulation, and has not reduced the people to 
poverty. On the contrary, both public and 
private wealth has increased, and along with 
it the general well-being. 

These beneficial results have surprised 
everyone familiar with Mexican history; 
not even the most optimistic would have 
dared to predict that in such a short time 
the leaks through which public wealth 
flowed out could have been stopped, and new 
sources of prosperity discovered, much less 
that credit could have been established upon 
a basis of equality with that of the first- 
class powers. 

In an honest administration - the money 
165 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

flows from the people into the public coffers 
and back again to the people, through differ- 
ent channels. By this ebb and flow of wealth 
both the administration and the people are 
enriched; in a word, upon this depends the 
national wealth, in the broadest acceiDtation 
of the phrase ; for the Government can thus 
bring about all the blessings which have been 
enumerated in the preceding paragraphs, and 
they are all factors in the prolongation of 
life; for they cut down distance, multiply 
time, lessen illness, furnish better arms for 
the struggle of existence, open new fields for 
the mind and new employments for the 
hands ; in short, furnish means for the devel- 
opment of every man's personality ; and upon 
this depends the development of the country, 
which is nothing more than the sum of its in- 
dividuals. In numbers it is the sum of these 
individuals, in quality it is the average capac- 
ity of these individuals. 

Having solved the problem of existence 
through the solution of the economic prob- 
166 



EE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

lem, it became less difficult for Diaz to state 
and solve the higher problem of the kind of 
existence we should lead under all its differ- 
ent aspects, political, administrative, and so- 
cial, so full of details, complexities, and diffi- 
culties. These in turn were arranged slowly 
but surely, effectively and decisively. If, as 
the great captain of the last century has 
said, money constitutes the sinews of war, 
it may be said with equal truth that money is 
the life of peace and the basis of progress. 

General Diaz used his political position 
as the fulcrum and his will as the lever with 
which to elevate the country. He knew that 
power can exist only when it is recognized 
and respected. Armed with the law backed 
by force, he obtained the necessary recogni- 
tion and respect. He had studied at short 
range the characteristics of our previous 
revolutions, and knew that all originated 
from the same source; namely, the antago- 
nism between authority and liberty, two prin- 
12 167 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ciples which in a proper political system not 
only harmonize but supplement eachother,and 
really ought to be inseparable. He also knew 
that our parties in their excitement and ex- 
travagance had carried both to such extremes 
as to divorce them entirely from one another. 
Chateaubriand says, in his " Memoires 
d^outre Tombe," that in France the Repub- 
licans made the mistake of exceeding the lim- 
its of true democracy on the one hand as far 
as the Legitimist party exceeded the reason- 
able limits of monarchy on the other. The 
former thought violence the sole road to suc- 
cess, while the latter considered a return to 
the past the only way of salvation. The same 
might well be said of our own country. The 
Republican party aspired to absolute liberty 
and ended in Jacobinism; the Reactionary 
party set up a standard of absolute authority 
' and became a tyranny. Neither the one nor 
the other understood that liberty without jus- 
tice becomes license, and that justice, unless 
enforced with a strong hand, becomes im- 
168 



EE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

potence ; that power without justice results in 
tyranny. But it is equally true that there 
can be no authority without justice nor jus- 
tice without liberty ; for all these are related 
as causes and effects, each one being at the 
same time both cause and effect. General 
Diaz earnestly set himself to the task of har- 
monizing authority and liberty, and the re- 
sult was peace, with its natural accompani- 
ment — order. 

His plans were laid with «uch foresight, 
and his ideas carried out with so much skill, 
that the most extreme Radicals came to see 
that respect for law does not imply servility, 
and that obedience to law does not mean 
slavery. The Reactionaries, on the other 
hand, were convinced that liberty does not 
necessarily mean anarchy, and that estab- 
lished justice is only the carrying out of duty 
because duty precedes law, both in time and 
in importance. 

The country, saved from ruin, and on the 
threshold of prosperity, very properly real- 
169 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ized that it was only right to concede to the 
man who had brought about this change not 
only sujfficient time to carry out his plan of 
regeneration, but also all the lawful power 
necessary to clear the way of all unnecessary 
obstacles and hindrances, such as the dilatory 
processes of law. 

The systematic opposition, which had be- 
come a settled habit in Mexico and had re- 
mained in operation to a certain extent as a 
legacy from former practical politicians, now 
fell into disrepute. Its voice was stifled 
by the enthusiastic plaudits of the entire na- 
tion. The people preferred the eloquence of 
deeds to that of flattering promises, and 
ceased to discuss either the character or the 
actions of the man who had succeeded in plac- 
ing his country in such an advantageous po- 
sition. From that time on the public assumed 
toward him the attitude of " Let him do what 
he wishes," which exactly fitted in with the 
motto which Diaz had adopted, " Give me a 
free hand." 

170 



RE-ELECTION OF GENERAL DIAZ 

Mexico, after the administration of Gen- 
eral Gonzalez, was evidently in the same 
plight as France after the Directory; that 
is, the people found themselves in the posi- 
tion of stockholders who have no president. 
It was fortunate for them that in place of a 
General Bonaparte a General Diaz presented 
himself, for instead of war they got peace; 
instead of international hatred they received 
the respect of the entire world, and instead of 
ruin, prosperity. France could, without in- 
consistency, repudiate her leader, and this 
she did by separating her cause from that 
of the tyrant. But Mexico thought it wiser 
to retain the man of her choice, because his 
ambition was entirely compatible with the 
nation's interests. 



CHAPTER VIII 

WHY GENERAL DIAZ HAS REMAINED IN POWER 

I AM about to approach the most diflScult 
and important subject of this book, 
namely, the reasons why General Diaz 
has been continually reelected, or, if you pre- 
fer, the reasons why he has been indefinitely 
retained in power — a fact which by some has 
been considered proof of his tyranny, and by 
others an equally palpable proof of the de- 
generation of the Mexican people. 

In the consideration of this point, I am go- 
ing to reproduce the substance of the series of 
unsigned articles, which I published some 
time ago in one of the New York papers, re- 
garding the presidential elections in Mexico. 
I then expressed my conviction that the re- 
election of General Diaz was necessary, be- 
cause the most fundamental interests of the 
country unquestionably demanded it; and I 
172 



WHY DIAZ REMAINED IN POWER 

founded my opinion upon three principal 
arguments, which may be categorically stated 
under the following heads : 

1. Instinct of Self -Preservation. 

2. The Unanimous Wish of the Country. 

3. The Absolute Necessity that General 
Diaz Should Finish his Work. 

I expanded each one of the above headings 
separately as follows : 

"1. The Instinct of Self -Preservation. 

" Mexican society was formed in the midst 
of a long and fearful struggle against the 
mother country, Spain. When the country 
came to its own politically, thanks to the 
achievement of its independence, it tried all 
kinds of governments without being able to 
establish any one of them, because the bases 
upon which each was founded were ill-as- 
sorted, if not antagonistic. 

" During this long period, which lasted 
from 1821 to 1876, the instinct of self-pres- 
ervation was not, properly speaking, gen- 
eral, but partisan; for each party thought 
173 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

that it alone possessed a true system, in fact 
the only system by which order could be 
established, peace assured, and the welfare 
of the people gained. Every honest politi- 
cal system must be founded upon this idea. 

" The truth is that all of these parties were 
in error, either because they started upon 
false principles, or because they exaggerated 
true ones; for it is well known that nothing 
is so often responsible for mistakes as the 
exaggeration of the truth. 

" According to the Conservative or Reac- 
tionary party (in Mexico the terms are 
synonymous) power emanates from the rul- 
ers; according to the Liberal party, power 
emanates from the people. Both parties ig- 
nore or appear to ignore the fact that power 
comes neither from the rulers nor the ruled, 
but that necessity creates it. Power is tran- 
sitory, if it arises only from the exigencies 
of the moment ; lasting, if it is born of stable 
and legitimate aspirations. Although it may 
be true that audacity and force are sufficient 
174 



WHY DIAZ REMAINED IN POWER 

to win the victory, genius, virtue, and, most 
of all, a sense of responsibility are neces- 
sary to make its effects permanent. 

" But the instinct of self-preservation un- 
derwent evolution, as does everything else 
that is human ; and having been dominant for 
long years, in spite of the efforts of those 
who held more rational views, it nevertheless 
gradually succumbed to these ideas, but only 
after they had been embodied in a man of un- 
usual force and insight. From that time on 
intelligence began to enlighten the under- 
standing of the parties, took possession of 
their wills, united society, and finally evolved 
a rational instinct, precursor of a rational in- 
telligence — a phenomenon which seems anom- 
alous, but is in reality perfectly logical and 
wholly in accord with psychological laws. 
This new-born instinct makes for peace, rea- 
sonable and rational peace; it accustoms us 
to habits of calmness and order, and finally 
through repetition, generation after genera- 
tion, forms these habits into race instincts. 
175 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

" Thus rationalization, forcibly impressed 
at first, in time became free, thanks to the 
intelligence and perseverance which finally 
molded our wills and made us understand 
that we were responsible before humanity 
for the condition of our country, since its 
greatness or decadence depended upon our 
acts, and its future was in our hands. 

" As soon as we understood the magnitude 
of this responsibility, instead of frightening 
us and making us turn back, it made us reso- 
lutely go forward, resolved unalterably to 
help on the work of order and progress in- 
augurated by General Diaz, whom we obey, 
not because we are forced to, but in order to 
establish the principle of solidarity. 

" Since then, each time that the elections 
come around, a tremor runs through the Re- 
public, a grave doubt arises, not upon the 
question of a successor to General Diaz, but 
upon the question whether General Diaz will 
be willing to remain in power, in view of the 
long years of fatigue which have been heaped 
176 



WHY DIAZ REMAINED IN POWER 

upon him. We appeal to his patriotism ; we 
invoke him by every means which is likely to 
influence him; all classes are united by a 
common desire; they beg him, as a sacred 
duty, to continue in the presidency, and to 
finish his great work, or at least to carry it 
forward as far as possible. 

" General Diaz has said repeatedly that it 
is now time for him to retire, and the nation 
has answered that this time will never come 
as long as he lives and follows the path 
which he himself has laid out. He tells us 
that we ought to choose a successor, but after 
taking the measure of our contemporaries, 
we reply that there is no one sufficiently great 
to replace him. He asks us what we will do 
when he dies, and we answer that when that 
day comes we will put in his place the one 
who most nearly approaches him in great- 
ness ; but that until that catastrophe overtakes 
us, and we are forced by necessity to take 
that step, it is our right and duty to insist 
upon the service of the best man we know 
177 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

rather than to try experiments with those 
we know not of. 

" What is it that inspires our people with 
such judicious doubts and such prudent 
scruples? It must be the instinct of self- 
preservation, deeper rooted now than ever, 
because we see for the first time that our 
national life is sound. To this fundamental 
instinct the spirit of useful activities unites 
itself, because it perceives that the work of 
the nation is good and remunerative ; that it 
increases home comforts and public con- 
veniences; that it improves our educational 
system; that it has become a power which 
sweeps us on toward the unknown with irre- 
sistible force, obliging us to remember the 
past, to appreciate the present, and to pre- 
pare for the future. 

" 2. The Unanimous Wish of the Coun- 
try. 

" As the end of each presidential term ap- 
proaches these doubts arise, and after the 
election has been held, enthusiasm breaks 
178 



WHY DIAZ REMAINED IN POWER 

forth, not as a local occurrence, but as the 
spontaneous expression of the gratification 
of the whole country, nay, even the whole 
world; for there is no country to-day upon 
which the attention of the world is more 
fixed than it is upon Mexico, which a short 
time ago was so humiliated, so unfortunate, 
so misunderstood, but to-day is envied by 
some, pointed out as a model by many, and 
respected by all. 

" This universal sympathy comes in great 
part from the admiration which foreigners 
feel toward our distinguished President, and 
it is due also to the Mexican people, who have 
been wise enough to appreciate him in all 
his greatness while he yet lives, and have 
identified themselves with him and have 
placed the nation's destiny unreservedly ^in 
his hands. 

" If some people maintain that the judg- 
ment of foreigners in this matter is of little 
importance, and that it should not have any 
influence upon our national politics, I rfeply 
179 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

that there can be no greater nor more dan- 
gerous error than this. It is equally true of 
society and of the individual that public 
opinion increases or lessens power accord- 
ing as it is favorable or the reverse; and 
certainly in international relations the ques- 
tion of the good or bad reputation of a nation 
is a most important factor in the cultivation 
of friendship, commerce, and credit. I might 
almost say that these things constitute in- 
dispensable elements in the life and pros- 
perity of a nation. It is perfectly right, 
therefore, that those nations which have in- 
terests in Mexico, whether because their sub- 
jects have settled and taken up their occupa- 
tions in Mexico, or because they have capital 
in private industrial enterprises or public 
works or any other vested interest in our 
country, should be greatly concerned in our 
peace and prosperity, and in the maintenance 
at the head of the Government of a man who 
gives them the most reliable guarantee of 
order and activity in the country and of hon- 
180 



WHY DIAZ REMAINED IN POWER 

est government and the fulfillment of con- 
tracts. 

" That this general opinion is most favor- 
able to General Diaz is shown by the praises 
of the press, the distinctions and honors 
which have been conferred upon him, and 
even upon his chief assistants. 

"3. The Absolute Necessity that General 
Diaz Should Finish his Work. 

" There are people, I know, who contend 
that this argument is false, but their position 
is based, I think, upon the understanding that 
we mean that Mexico will reach her highest 
development under Diaz. Nothing is farther 
from our thoughts, for as readers of history 
we know very well that nations do not de- 
velop as rapidly as individuals, and that those 
which quickly reach their highest develop- 
ment are short-lived. 

" A work of the kind which General Diaz 

has undertaken is by its very nature slow, 

and all that he expects and all that we have 

a right to expect of him and of the present 

181 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

generation is that we may succeed in estab- 
lishing in our country her habit of life, elim- 
inating all disturbing elements, strengthen- 
ing the principles which she already has, 
and creating new ones which will increase 
her vitality, thus laying substantial, firm, 
and immovable foundations upon which 
shall rest the superb edifice of the future." 

" Some people tell us that if so much has 
been accomplished (assuredly no one can 
doubt this assertion) his work must now be 
completed. But this is not so. One thing is 
still lacking. 

" As yet there has not been time for the 
root so favorably planted to grow. We must 
accustom ourselves to contemplate what has 
already been achieved without astonishment, 
though not without gratitude, in order that 
we may become habituated to peace, order, 
and progress. We must incorporate these 
elements so firmly in our national organ- 
ization that they will remain there for- 
182 



WHY DIAZ REMAINED IN POWER 

ever, so that we Mexicans may justly believe 
that all this progress and weU-being is the 
collective work of the nation, the result of 
our own will, intelligence, and work, even 
though it has been inaugurated by a great 
man. It will take time, I repeat, for the ef- 
fect which has been made upon other coun- 
tries and the respect, referred to above, to 
be attributed to the country as well as to 
its noted President. But I am sure that 
to bring this to pass is to-day the great- 
est aspiration of General Diaz, for to him 
the glory of his country is the supreme 
aim. 

" Finally, our system lacks that clearness, 
perfection of administrative detail, complete- 
ness, and simplicity which is necessary in 
order that when General Diaz relinquishes 
his control the system bequeathed by him to 
the nation will not offer difficulties, or leave 
room for strife, still less end in disaster; in 
order that his successor may carry on the 
good work without stumbling and without 
13 183 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

vacillation; in short, that there may be no 
break in the continuity of our development, 
and that his successor may find all important 
political, economic, and social problems so 
well solved that there will be no further ne- 
cessity of creation, but simply the need of 
normal growth ; that there may be no strug- 
gles to undertake, only the fruits of victory 
to gather. Thus, even if the new president 
should not prove to be a man of excep- 
tional ability, he might, nevertheless, carry 
on the administration successfully and per- 
petuate the advantages which we now 
enjoy. 

" For the above reasons, I agree with all 
classes in Mexico, all political parties, and all 
foreign powers who have relations with Mex- 
ico, that the reelection of President Diaz is a 
necessity." 

" I have written this article, not to sustain 
the prestige of a candidate, whose superiority 
no one questions, and whose tenure of office 
184 



WHY DIAZ EEMAINED IN POWER 

necessity imposes, but to collect and bring 
to a focus the ideas and opinions of the pub- 
lic at large — to make a composite photo- 
graph of them, as it were — and also to 
correct certain errors, current among for- 
eigners, which at first sight seem to be favor- 
able to General Diaz, but which in reality 
belittle his greatness and make the public of 
Mexico appear timid and servile." 

" General Diaz has plainly shown, during 
the long years of his presidency, that he is 
not actuated by motives of ambition, per- 
sonal profit, or party aggrandizement, but 
that he has been actuated by the legitimate 
ambition of a patriot, and has exercised his 
power for the attainment of the noblest and 
highest ends for which a patriot can work — 
the welfare of the country as a whole. The 
public, which from the first almost by intui- 
tion rested its most cherished hopes upon its 
leader, has come to hold as an inner convic- 
tion, founded on reason and experience, the 
most ardent faith in the Government. Just 
185 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

as General Diaz thinks that his greatest glory 
is the good of the people whose destinies 
he controls, so we, the people, think on 
our part that our greatest glory is to work 
with him, each one according to his ability, 
to further the interests and aid in the ag- 
grandizement of our country; we do this 
with the inner conviction that to work with 
determination for the accomplishment of a 
noble purpose is the highest aim in life, the 
truest form of happiness, because a life of 
activity radiating from the country as a cen- 
ter and coming back to it, is the realization of 
the highest ideal which the spirit of man can 
conceive." 

"When I wrote the above I was not laboring 
under any misconception as to the danger of 
placing in the hands of a single man all the 
power of Government, nor was I ignorant of 
the fact that in so doing we were transferring 
our liberties to the hands of another. But at 
that time it seemed to me a less dangerous 
186 



WHY DIAZ REMAINED IN POWER 

risk to take than that of placing a new man 
at the head of the Government. 

Three ways were open to ns : that of elect- 
ing a new man, that of electing a president 
designated by General Diaz, and that of re- 
electing the President himself. 

The first I considered the most dangerous 
and most difficult of the three courses, be- 
cause during the long administration of Gen- 
eral Diaz no new man had arisen, properly 
speaking. That is to say, no man had arisen 
by his own efforts and shown any especial 
ability for administration. If any men have 
become distinguished, it has been only under 
the protection and sufferance of the pres- 
ident, raised from obscurity by Diaz himself, 
and without more value than he has thought 
it advisable to credit them. The proof of this 
assertion lies in the fact that each one of 
them has come to nothing as soon as Diaz has 
pushed him aside. Although it may well be 
that under the regime of cowardly flattery 
which obtains among us, only the individuals 
187 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

whom General Diaz lias raised up are consid- 
ered great and those whom he has thrust 
down are belittled. 

In following the second course, the same 
objection would present itself: namely, our 
lack of faith in the personality of the man 
who might be designated as his successor by 
General Diaz. Furthermore, if the incum- 
bent should take it into his head to act upon 
his own account, he would become by that 
move a new man of untried ability. If he 
were to follow General Diaz's orders strictly, 
it would be better to keep on with General 
Diaz himself in power, appropriating all the 
glory and assuming all the responsibility, as 
he now does. The experiment made with 
General Gonzalez was too disastrous an un- 
dertaking to repeat. 

The third course being the safest and the 
most satisfactory, we have always decided 
upon it and reelected President Diaz. 

Then, too, we have always cherished the 
hope that General Diaz would enter upon a 
188 



WHY DIAZ REMAINED IN POWER 

new phase, and extend our liberties by giving 
the people a more direct participation in pub- 
lic affairs. This would bring out our latent 
administrative abilities and allow some man 
to develop the desired qualities of leadership. 
This was our expectation, and this is still 
our hope. 



CHAPTER IX 

IS GENERAL DIAZ A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 
HOW HE HAS BEEN GOVERNING 

THE manner in which President Diaz 
has been governing and his repeated 
reelections have gained for him 
various titles according to the point of view 
of different critics. For some years past the 
North American press, which in general has 
shown itself as distinctly pro-Diaz as the 
Mexicans themselves, has been in the habit 
of calling President Diaz " an intelligent 
tyrant " or " a good tyrant." The first phrase 
is admissible, for a tyrant may be intelligent, 
but the second is not, for goodness and tyr- 
anny are incompatible terms. According to 
the precise definition of the Spanish Acad- 
emy, a tyrant is " one who unlawfully seizes 
the Government of a state, especially if he 
rules arbitrarily and without due processes 
190 



IS DIAZ A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

of law." This definition embodies both the 
ancient and the modern significance of 
the word. The Greeks called anyone who 
usurped the sovereign power a " tyrant," and 
that is the original meaning of the word. It 
is equivalent to "usurper," because the 
significance of the word is derived from the 
means used in the acquisition of power, and 
does not refer to the manner in which the 
power was exercised. The case of Pisistratus 
might be cited as proof, for he was called 
" tyrant," although he was neither unjust nor 
violent in his methods of government ; while, 
on the other hand, this title was not used in 
speaking of Persian kings, notwithstanding 
the fact that they were truly tyrannical in the 
modern sense. But as usurpation gener- 
ally leads to violence, the Greek themselves 
later on used the word in the sense of a re- 
proach, and this meaning has persisted down 
to our own times. So that in all modern lan- 
guages the epithet is applied to those who 
govern with cruelty and injustice, without 
191 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

respect for laws, either human or divine, even 
though they may not have usurped the power. 
Henry VIII of England is an example. Thus 
it appears that there cannot be any such 
thing as a " good tyrant," because the words 
are mutually exclusive. But the term is not 
applicable to General Diaz in either accepta- 
tion, because he did not obtain power by 
usurpation, but through a legally sanctioned 
election, and he has not governed with cru- 
elty, injustice, or disregard of law. He is, 
therefore, not a tyrant either in his manner 
of coming into power or in his practice as a 
ruler. 

Let us see whether the epithet of " good 
despot," which has been applied to him by 
some writers, will fit him better! In its 
original sense " despot " meant " master " or 
"lord" (Seo-TTOTT^s in Greek). This title was 
given in ancient times to persons who exer- 
cised the supreme control in certain coun- 
tries, and to-day signifies a sovereign who 
governs in his own right, without subjection 
192 



IS DIAZ 'A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

to any law or constitution — an absolute mon- 
arch, as we would call him. 

From the legal point of view this is not the 
case with General Diaz, for he governs in the 
name of the Constitution. Though as a mat- 
ter of fact he governs by virtue of the extra- 
ordinary confidence which he inspires, and 
under a sort of tacit understanding between 
the governed and the governor. At the end 
of each presidential term there has been 
something more than an expression of tolera- 
tion of his manner of governing; there has 
been most enthusiastic approbation, unmis- 
takable and reiterated after each reelection. 
More than this, there have been frequently 
conferred upon him, under different forms, 
unusual powers, to be applied in all branches 
of public administration. These powers were 
bestowed by Congress, in its character of 
legitimate public representative and in the 
form of a sovereignty, for the use of which 
the Executive was to render account in due 
time. Congress itself was to decide whether 
193 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

it should bestow or withhold its approval. A 
study of the situation and of the vicissitudes 
through which the country was passing will 
reveal the fact that it was necessary to do 
this. 

The instinct of the people, the experience 
acquired by its rulers, the desire for peace, 
for progress, and for prosperity, obliged the 
two opposing groups, the Liberal and the 
Reactionary parties, to lay aside their hostile 
attitude, give up their bickerings over ab- 
stract principles, and confine their efforts 
to the field of the actual and the practical. 
No one any longer dared to shout, " Let the 
colonies perish, but save our principles " ; 
everyone was ready to accept the dictum that 
we must first provide for existence and af- 
terwards consider what sort of an existence 
it should be. 

It was then seen, as I have already ex- 
plained, that the principle of a single term 
without reelection had its serious objections, 
and the clause in the Constitution forbidding 
194 



IS DIAZ A. TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

this was changed to meet the necessities of 
the situation. All were ready to see their 
declaration of principles and even some of 
their rights disregarded, in order to bring 
about the one end which all agreed was of 
paramount importance, namely, peace. 

This fervent desire for peace began in the 
time of Juarez, when the Empire had been 
destroyed, and with it the Reactionary party. 
Juarez himself would have courted peace, 
if we Porfirists had not hindered him with 
our systematic and unbridled opposition and 
our disorderly outbreaks. But it is note- 
worthy that, in spite of all our efforts, we did 
not succeed in overthrowing the " Grand Old 
Indian of Gueletao " ; this was due in large 
measure to the fact that the public was tired 
of strife and longed for peace. 

During the administration of Lerdo the 
situation was not far different. The Porfirist 
Revolution was not really popular, and, as I 
have already said, Lerdo fell more on account 
of his own apathy and skepticism than be- 
195 



PORFIKIO DIAZ 

cause of any popular sympathy; with the 
Eevolution. The public wanted peace. 

Porfirio Diaz arrived at the propitious 
moment and satisfied this general desire. 
The public knew that all the disorderly ele- 
ments of the population were at the command 
of this man, and that as long as he remained 
in power there would be nothing to fear from 
them. Furthermore, they understood that it 
was for the public interest to retain General 
Diaz in the presidency, that the seeds of 
revolution might not be again scattered 
broadcast. After the death-dealing day of 
June 25, 1879, of which I have already 
spoken, even the Porfirists themselves were 
cowed, and have ever since remained in com- 
plete subjection to their leader. There have 
been no further serious conspiracies. Gen- 
eral Garcia de la Cadena was the last to ven- 
ture a return to the old practices, and his 
foolish attempt came to naught; for at the 
very outset he fell into a skillfully laid trap 
and lost his life. He was the " Last of the 
196 



IS DIAZ A TYEANT OR A DESPOT? 

Mohicans." Since then terror on the one side 
and a sincere desire for peace and prosperity 
on the other have prevented further upris- 
ings. The choice lay between Revolution and 
Dictatorship, and the people unanimously 
chose to lay aside the musket and submit to 
the yoke. 

But President Diaz did not at once insti- 
tute a system of sic volo, sic juheo absolut- 
ism. He based his power upon the Consti- 
tution of 1857, and from the first has been 
gradually modifying it, until he has adjusted 
it to suit his purpose. His government was 
actually and undeniably personal, but he 
knew very well how to cover up appearances 
and make the public believe that all were 
taking part more or less directly in public 
affairs. His tactics were very simple. When 
he conceived a plan, he talked it over with the 
secretary of the branch it affected, and, if 
the matter were important, he called together 
his whole Cabinet, and each member ex- 
pressed his opinion with entire freedom. On 
197 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

questions of transcendent importance he in- 
directly consulted public opinion through the 
medium of the press, or named special 
commissioners, who reported their conclu- 
sions to him. On such occasions, the Presi- 
ident listened attentively to all that was said, 
and quietly and dispassionately discussed 
each point, without undervaluing any sensi- 
ble argument, no matter from what quarter 
it came. As soon as his mind had been made 
up, he sent to Congress a draft of the pro- 
posed law, and at the request of the legis- 
lative committee of Congress he granted them 
a hearing, and the whole matter was dis- 
cussed from all points of view. As all were 
animated by the desire to arrive at the best 
possible solution of the matter, the draft was 
modified, altered, or left intact, according to 
their best judgment. The President not only 
discussed the projected law with the mem- 
bers of the legislative committee, but also 
with any senators or congressmen who re- 
quested an audience. The result of this 
198 



IS DIAZ A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

method of procedure was that when a de- 
cision had once been reached, the projected 
law had been examined, discussed, and re- 
vised, not only by the Executive, but by a 
large part of the members of both houses, 
and it therefore passed without wrangling, 
and usually with little or no amendment. 
This method simplified the work of Con- 
gress and obviated the conflicts between the 
two legislative bodies and between the legis- 
lative and executive departments and, best 
of all, suppressed parliamentary discussions, 
which were considered dangerous by the 
President, on account of the fieriness of the 
national character and its susceptibility to 
eloquence and passion, which makes it unable 
to confine itself to safe limits for a system of 
the kind which was being established. This 
method also had the effect of preventing the 
development of important individual figures 
in Congress and about them such groups as 
those which gave President Juarez so much 
trouble. 

14 199 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

This system is impractical, miless the leg- 
islative body is perfectly under control. 

In all quarters of the world, even in those 
countries which have the greatest electoral 
freedom, such as England and the United 
States, the Government endeavors, either 
directly or through the medium of its 
party leaders, to control primaries and con- 
ventions, in order that the result of the 
elections may be favorable to such candi- 
dates as it can count upon for support. 
Because no system of administration can 
work successfully against the opposition 
of a hostile Parliament. In those countries 
which have a strictly parliamentary rule, this 
difficulty is obviated by a change of ministry 
to suit the majority party ; thus serious situ- 
ations are avoided. But in countries like our 
own and the United States a different sys- 
tem is followed. There is no such recourse 
to fall back upon, or at least it is very sel- 
dom used. As a matter of fact, in the United 
Stat'^s there is no such thing as a change of 
200 



IS DIAZ A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

Cabinet on account of congressional opposi- 
tion, because the theory is that the president 
constitutes the executive branch and not the 
ministers. While in restricted monarchies 
and in France the ministers constitute the 
real governing power. In Mexico, whenever 
we have interpreted the Constitution differ- 
ently from the American practice (our Con- 
stitution is an exact copy of that of the 
United States), there have been frequent 
changes of the Cabinet, but no beneficial re- 
sults. General Diaz's plan would have been 
impossible in the form in which many people 
said it ought to have been carried out. His 
government has been successful precisely 
because he has changed it from a centrifugal 
to a centripetal system. ' 

In this way it has come about that the 
Legislative power has been little by little 
delegated to the President, and the Judicial 
power has been going the same way, t's all 
matters connected with politics or the 'nter- 
ests of the administration have been reffVred 
201 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

to him, so that in the Judiciary, as well as in 
all the other parts of the complicated machin- 
ery, to which I have already referred, the 
president constitutes the main pivot upon 
which they all turn. 

This places the administration of justice, 
as well as all other departments, under cen- 
tral control. In order to better accomplish 
this object the Constitution was amended, 
and the President of the Supreme Court 
was divested of his office of Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Republic, a doubling up of offices 
which caused such serious difficulties and 
political catastrophes in the time of Juarez, 
of Lerdo, and even of President Diaz's first 
term. 

The Judiciary has been, and is still, called 
a " Power," just as the Legislature is, but 
both of these bodies have been disarmed and 
are therefore impotent. In reality, they are 
to-day nothing more than branches of the 
Executive. 

The case of the public itself is not far 
202 



IS DIAZ A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

different. For it lias been gradually hand- 
ing over its electoral power to the President, 
first by asking his advice as to whom they 
should elect ; later by receiving his orders 
and thus losing their interest in going to the 
polls; finally by forcing the Government to 
hold elections on its own account in order 
to prevent the country from falling into the 
dilemma of becoming a nation without a 
head. 

Let us now pass to the consideration of the 
government of the states. When a governor 
is to be elected or reelected, delegations rep- 
resenting all classes go to the Capital to ask 
of the President his moral support for their 
candidate, or at least to inquire whether their 
nominee is persona grata. These very in- 
dividuals are the ones who afterwards 
guide the elections, and, as they are the 
leaders of the localities in which they live, 
they achieve a complete triumph; there be- 
ing no chance for disagreement after they 
have all, tacitly or by arrangement, fixed 
203 



PORFIBIO DIAZ 

upon a candidate or decided not to enter the 
struggle. 

Following this method, not at the solicita- 
tion of General Diaz, but fostered by him, 
there has been established through contin- 
ued practice a custom which has invalidated 
the sovereignty of the individual states. In 
truth, one must acknowledge that this sov- 
ereignty is an absurdity. Pomeroy says, 
with abundant reason, in his " Constitutional 
Law " : " It is impossible to maintain that a 
state of the Union is an independent and 
separate political entity; it has no intrinsic 
Legislative power; its functions of govern- 
ment are limited, not only by its own Con- 
stitution, but by that of the Union. It can 
neither amend nor amplify its own funda- 
mental law, because it is limited by the su- 
preme law of the nation, which it cannot 
override. Instead of enjoying the power of 
sovereignty as an independent political so- 
ciety, each state finds itself in a position of 
permanent subordination." We must not 
204 



IS DIAZ A" TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

overlook the significant fact that it is a North 
American who writes thus and that he is re- 
ferring to the United States, the freest coun- 
try in the world, and the one from which we 
have derived our Constitution. 

The individual states certainly cannot have 
either sovereignty or independence, properly 
speaking; but they do have liberty, because 
they are federal entities, free to move within 
the sphere of action which the Constitution 
has laid down for them. I sincerely believe 
that a confederation of sovereign states can- 
not constitute a nation in the true sense, be- 
cause the first condition, that of national 
entity, is violated. Where the sovereignty 
is divided there can be neither power, respon- 
sibility, nor harmonious action. When I am 
in Vera Cruz or Jalisco, I have never thought 
of myself as living under the flag of Vera 
Cruz or Jalisco, but under the Mexican flag 
and under the protection of the laws of my 
country. The conception of a group of sov- 
ereign states is revolutionary and destruc- 
205 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

tive of patriotism the moment it tends to 
divide allegiance instead of unifying it; and 
in so far as it does this, it weakens rather 
than strengthens the country. 

One of General Diaz's greatest claims to 
gratitude, one of the highest services he has 
rendered the country, is that of having modi- 
fied this erroneous conception; it is due to 
him that we no longer have Sonorans, Oax- 
acans, Yucatanians, and Michoacans, but 
Mexicans, from one end of the Republic to 
the other. In order to bring about this 
change, it has not been necessary to violate 
the Constitution or any law of the land. All 
that had to be done to give to our institutions 
their true character was to correct abuses 
and to reduce everything to reasonable pro- 
portions. It is incontrovertible that all 
measures necessary for the preservation of 
order may properly be considered to fall 
within the legislative rights of a nation. 
But legislators are in a sound position 
only when they see to it that the laws are 
206 



IS DIAZ A TYEANT OR A DESPOT? 

restricted to those which are necessary to 
insure order. 

The rectification of our conception of the 
sovereignty and independence of states has 
been brought about without disturbing the 
principle of liberty to govern their own in- 
ternal affairs within the limits prescribed by 
the Constitution. But at the same time the 
governors have actually given up some of 
their powers, and in their desire to cooperate 
more effectively in the work of nationaliza- 
tion, they have ended by turning themselves 
into federal officials, dependent upon the 
central government, by which they are in 
reality designated. 

The governors, in their turn, have followed 
the same practice within their respective 
states, nominating the members of the Legis- 
lative and Judicial bodies, and even the 
Municipal officials, thus completing the sys- 
tem, and creating a single political and 
administrative machine of colossal size, 
extending over the whole Eepublic and 
207 



PORFIEIO DIAZ 

manipulated by the power of the individual 
at the center. 

I doubt whether General Diaz, when he 
was elected for his second term, had con- 
ceived this vast plan, but I think affairs were 
gradually tending in this direction on account 
of the anxiety for peace and the eagerness 
for material progress which had taken pos- 
session of the nation; and the movement 
toward centralization, already begun, was 
favored by the President and skillfully pro- 
moted as the best means of accomplishing 
his far-reaching plan. 

The people were quick to see that the more 
power they conceded to the President, the 
greater became the material prosperity of the 
country and the more broad and comfortable 
their own lives. Under these influences they 
were induced to lay aside their liberties, one 
might almost say to abjure them altogether, 
in order to give themselves up to the enjoy- 
ment of their happy lot. 

Some writers have said to the Mexicans, 
208 



IS DIAZ A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

wlio boast so much of their Democracy: 
" Monarchy is not merely the existence of a 
king, but a centralization of power." The 
people have replied that what they cared 
about was the name, not the thing itself ; and 
that peace and bread meant more to them than 
all else. In vain they have been told, " Peace 
not only implies order, but liberty as well." 
The people have answered : " Without peace 
there is no bread, and without bread no lib- 
erty." In vain has it been pointed out that 
" repeated reelection is the method, ' pacif- 
ism ' the lure by means of which the way is 
paved for the preconceived end, the one 
completes the other." The people reply that 
they are tired of experiments and that they 
put up with things as they exist because, if it 
is not good, it is at least the best that they 
have had, and it assures them bread. In vain 
has it been explained that " although the mul- 
titude of railroads, tunnels, gigantic bridges, 
good highways, palaces, and countless other 
evidences of material progress, rising as if 
209 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

by magic from the bosom of the earth, bear 
striking witness to the advantages of ' pacif- 
ism ' ; it is nevertheless true that all this is 
only for the purpose of astonishing the en- 
slaved multitude into believing that all these 
portents, almost miracles, are the natural and 
predestined fruit of peace — of sacred peace, 
which has had to traverse a long via crucis 
of bitterness and tears." The public replies 
that it has always traversed this via crucis 
without having the consolation of material 
progress and comfortable life; that this sys- 
tem has given them and will continue to give 
them bread. Always and forever the same 
reply with this irrefutable logic of bread. 
" One can live without liberty, but not with- 
out bread ! " 

President Diaz, realizing the situation, has 
taken good care that there should be no lack 
of bread, even for his enemies. Should one 
ask the rich banker whether he prefers the 
past to the present, he will, in spite of the 
natural tendency of human nature to think 
210 



IS DIAZ 'A TYEANT OR A DESPOT? 

that the past is always better than the pres- 
ent, answer, " No," because his business is 
better now than ever. The same reply will 
be received from merchants, landowners, 
artists, artisans, men of the city, men of the 
country, and even from the humblest peas- 
ant whose hut the revolutionaries burned, 
whose family were outraged, and whose 
" burro " was stolen, and he himself tricked 
into becoming a soldier in order that he 
might serve as food for cannon. 

If one says in Mexico that every Octavius 
becomes an Augustus, and after every Augus- 
tus comes a Tiberius, a Caligula, a Claudius, 
a Nero, there are plenty to reply that every 
Cromwell becomes a Lord Protector and pre- 
pares the way for a Charles II, and that 
every Revolution is followed by a Reign of 
Terror, and every Terrorism by a Napoleon. 

It is the normal condition of people to 

think more about the present, which they can 

understand and which means everything to 

them, than of the future, which is a matter 

211 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

of conjecture, and affects them less than it 
does those who come after. But there is 
one thing which no Mexican can fail to see: 
that to-day we are respected by all the 
nations who yesterday looked down upon us ; 
to-day we are given a place of honor in all 
international conclaves, in all scientific con- 
gresses; we are mentioned wherever nation- 
al honor, science, order, progress, civiliza- 
tion, peace, concord, or any great and noble 
sentiment or interest of humanity is dis- 
cussed; we are always represented and well 
received, and frequently our Capital is 
chosen as the place in which to hold inter- 
national congresses. 

Is there any room for shadows in this pic- 
ture 1 Yes ; but that is true of every picture. 
There is always the question, however, 
whether all this material and moral progress 
has not cost too muchf Of course we all 
know that nothing is gained without some 
outlay. But really the question is not " How 
much has it cost? " but " Is the return worth 
212 



IS DIAZ A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

tlie outlay? " In all this advance, has not 
much been lost and trampled underfoot? I 
think so. For in the triumphal procession 
of the car of progress, every one who tries 
to stop, or even change, its course, is run 
over and crushed, whether he be brave or 
stupid or ignorant. 

But can all this advance be the work of 
one man? No such movement can ever be 
singular in its character. A commander in 
chief, even if he measures to the exceptional 
height of a Napoleon, cannot triumph in a 
campaign alone. General Diaz understood 
this well. His long military career had 
taught him its truth and he knew how to 
apply the lesson in his civil capacity. He 
chose his captains, so to speak, and began 
by organizing and disciplining an army of 
peace. When he had accomplished its or- 
ganization, he began his campaign, relying, 
not upon his good fortune, nor his hopes, 
but upon his insight, his perspicuity, and 
his forceful and indomitable will. 
213 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

He transferred the struggle to another field 
of operations. In the former, those who were 
ready in action rose and succeeded best. In 
this, different aptitudes are required, an- 
other sort of knowledge, and different weap- 
ons. Boldness alone is not sufficient; one 
must also have knowledge and patience. 
Force alone is not enough; one must also 
possess ability. Those who doubt, those who 
vacillate, those who slip, those who fall, 
drop to the rear or perish. Whose fault 
is it? That of the system? No! The will 
of the individual is at fault on one side, 
and the universal and eternal law on the 
other side. 

It is said that a reign of plutocracy has 
been inaugurated in Mexico. This is true, 
but the phenomenon is not local, it is gen- 
eral. In all countries of the civilized world, 
plutocracy has taken the place of aristocracy, 
and the former rules. It is no less true of 
the American Federal Republic than it is 
of the centralized Republic of France or 
214 



IS DIAZ A TYRANT OR A DESPOT? 

of the constitutional monarchy of Great 
Britain; and every; plutocracy is conserv- 
ative. 

It is said that fortunes have been made in 
a day — colossal fortunes of tainted wealth — 
and it is certainly true ; it is equally true that 
this has happened everywhere. But all these 
are secondary considerations. The important 
thing is to know whether the benefits it has 
bequeathed to us are worth, in a material 
sense, the wealth they have cost ; whether, in 
short, they have actually brought us that 
which is more useful. But, you will object, 
that the issue I raise is not a moral one. I 
am well aware of that; quite the contrary, 
it is eminently practical, and, above all, it 
is an unalterable fact. 

As a general thing, the people do not com- 
plain so much of the millions of dollars which 
are stolen from them as they do when their 
liberties are juggled with. They are more 
than right in this. The loss of many millions 
is insignificant compared with the loss of a 
15 215 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

single one of our public liberties. Our lib- 
erties are so closely connected and inter- 
twined with one another that the destruction 
of one must necessarily mean the ruin of all. 
In truth, there are no such things as liberties, 
there is only LIBERTY. 



CHAPTEE X 

PKESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

AS we have seen, there has been going 
Z-m on in Mexico a process of concen- 
•^ "^ tration, with one man as its center. 
This man was the product of the warlike con- 
ditions which were the necessary consequence 
of more than sixty years of internal revolu- 
tion. The situation was exactly the same 
with Julius Caesar in Eome. It would have 
been impossible to bring about this concen- 
tration through violent means, for a legal 
dictatorship could not have been built up 
through violence. It could only be, as it was 
in this case, the result of continuous and 
skillful manipulation; restrictions each time 
drawn closer, but in a manner which would 
flatter the Reactionary party without alarm- 
ing the Jacobins. 

Diaz severed the various states from their 
217 



POEFIRTO DIAZ 

respective local governments and bound them 
to the central Government. He made the 
national palace a " Capitol." Beginning with 
a military oligarchy, he ended with an au- 
tocracy. He had the wisdom not to disavow 
the Constitution of 1857, but to set it up as 
a sacred standard, which he constantly in- 
voked and as constantly modified, not in order 
to keep within constitutional limits, but in 
order to mould the Constitution to suit his 
own purposes. 

I do not believe that he deceived anybody 
or even attempted deception. His action was 
open, and his intention sufficiently clear. 
Everybody understood what he was aiming 
at; many denounced and protested, but no- 
body dared to take the responsibility of stop- 
ping him. On the contrary, concession after 
concession was made with undeniable good 
will. I have already shown the reason for 
this; there was hunger for bread and thirst 
for peace, and everything was sacrificed to 
these two irrepressible demands. These acts 
218 



PEESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

were justified on the ground that it was 
our first duty to reestablish the physical 
strength of the nation. 

It has been asserted that this attitude 
destroyed public spirit. Even the Govern- 
ment became alarmed, as was shown in 1906, 
when difficulties arose with the United States 
regarding the position assumed by the North 
American press hostile to Mexico, on the 
ground that a general uprising had been 
planned for the purpose of reenacting the 
Sicilian Vespers and slaughtering all the 
Americans in the country. 

A cabinet meeting was held to discuss the 
question whether such apathy might not 
prove disastrous in case of war with our 
neighbor at the north. The prevailing opin- 
ion was that public spirit in Mexico was not 
dead, but sleeping. 

I take a still more optimistic view; I be- 
lieve it is beginning to awake. Now that 
"the hunger for bread and the thirst for 
peace " have been satiated, I think that the 
219 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

public is beginning to feel a hunger for jus- 
tice and a thirst for freedom. When a coun- 
try forswears its liberties and foregoes its 
right to self-government, and has not learned 
to adapt itself to the more liberal doctrine 
that the interest of the whole country must 
be the interest of each individual ; when citi- 
zens of the middle class return to their fire- 
sides, imagining that to profess a lack of 
interest in politics is to show practical wis- 
dom, it is because they fail to appreciate that 
politics involve our life blood, our money, 
our honor. When a coimtry does not know 
how to defend her liberties, and places her- 
self under the protection of a " Man of Des- 
tiny," the outcome is sure to be that which 
we have just seen : " Disintegration and de- 
moralization." Who makes this assertion, 
you will say, a demagogue f No; an advo- 
cate of civil order; a nobleman, the Duke of 
Audiffret-Pasquier. 

A country ought to know better than to 
give itself over body and soul to a single 
220 




SENOEA DONA CARMEN ROMERO EUBIO UE DIAZ, WIFE 
OF PRESIDENT PORFIRIO DIAZ. 



PKESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

individual, no matter who the man or what 
the circumstances. Again you will ask, 
" Who makes such assertions ? " A pretend- 
er, a man of the opposition party, a can- 
didate? No; M. Thiers, President of the 
Eepublic of France. 

The words which I repeat we once knew 
well; in fact, they were engraved upon our 
memory before Diaz became president. They 
were a part of the creed of the Liberal party, 
and especially of the Porfirist faction; they 
were written upon the revolutionary banner 
raised at the time of the " Plan de la Noria " 
and the uprising against Juarez, and at the 
time of the " Plan de Tuxtepec " and the 
uprising against Lerdo. 

When we gave up our rights we were not 
acting in ignorance, but in the full knowledge 
of what we were doing ; we were actuated by 
the conjBdence which we had then and which 
many of us still have, that our renunciation 
was not a permanent abdication of our civic 
rights, but a transfer of them in good faith 
221 



POBFIRIO DIAZ 

to the keeping of a man of irreproachable 
honor; one who would know how to re- 
turn them as he had received them, little by 
little, until complete restitution had been 
made. "We were confident that we would 
never have to say, " Diaz, return to us our 
liberties," as the Romans exclaimed, " Vare, 
legiones redde " ; that General Diaz, a patriot 
and a man of honor, could never bring him- 
self to repeat the phrase of the insolent 
Napoleon III, who, in order to palliate the 
failure of the French intervention in Mexico, 
said : " It is the secret of Providence that she 
does not always respect her own combina- 
tions." 

In my opinion, public spirit is beginning 
to rise in Mexico, and, what is still more sig- 
nificant, this impulse is showing itself in the 
form of disorder. Since last year (1906) 
there have been set on foot socialistic move- 
ments which are in reality, if I am not 
mistaken, political movements. I have had oc- 
222 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

casion to study this movement, because Gen- 
eral Diaz entrusted me with a confidential 
mission for this purpose. I served him with 
my accustomed loyalty, and thought it my 
duty to speak with frankness. In a report 
addressed to him, dated July 17, 1906, 1 have 
presented the results of my investigations in 
the State of Vera Cruz, in part in the follow- 
ing words : 

" As to the question of subverting law and 
order, it is certain that the idea did not orig- 
inate in Orizaba, but that it emanated from 
the Capital. It is equally certain that the 
labor question has been seized upon merely 
as a pretext; the situation is one of which 
it is easy to take advantage : 12,000 workmen, 
their ignorance, their character, and their 
just cause for discontent." 

" I believe with Giuciardini that in politics, 
as in medicine, good remedies are common 
enough ; the skill consists in knowing how to 
administer them with timeliness and judg- 
ment." 

223 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

This I was bold enough to say to the Pres- 
ident, and I also sent him, on August 3, 1906, 
some confidential notes, which I believe it 
will not be out of place to repeat here. 

" Confidential. Notes Regakding the Polit- 
ical AND Social Situation Which Has 
Been Brought About in the Country; 
Its Causes and the Way to Ward Off 
the Danger: 

" Mr. pREsmENT : 

"I am neither a pessimist nor an op- 
timist. I look upon all events with calmness, 
study them without passion or preconceived 
ideas. This seems to me the only way to 
form a just judgment, or rather, one which 
is as nearly just as possible, considering the 
fallibility of the spirit of man, and more 
especially my own intellectual shortcomings. 
Following this method, which is strictly sci- 
entific, I have studied the actual conditions 
in the country, the situation in which the 
224 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

Government finds itself, and the significance 
of the socialistic movement which has been 
inaugurated and grows daily in importance, 
for it is evidently on the increase both in ex- 
tent and in intensity. After making an anal- 
ysis, I have busied myself in seeking the 
remedy for the evils complained of by our 
people. Finally, I have undertaken to pre- 
dict, by the use of the deductive method, 
what, it seems to me, must ensue. In the 
brief notes which follow, I have the honor, 
and also the boldness, to present to you the 
results of this study. 

" When you were good enough to entrust 
to me the task of speaking for the Govern- 
ment through the press, empowering me to 
investigate this subject freely and without 
special instructions, I felt it a great honor, 
and was deeply gratified with this proof 
of your confidence. I believe that it would 
not comport well with the confidence which 
you have placed in me, if I limited myself 
to the composition of more or less high- 
225 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

sounding editorials, contradicting the asser- 
tions of the opposition press, propounding 
sound doctrines, and defending the Govern- 
ment from the accusations and calumnies of 
its enemies. All of which, even supposing 
that I were capable of doing it with distin- 
guished ability, would not satisfy the public, 
nor ward off the dangers ; to accomplish this 
neither the exposition of theories, the most 
eloquent writings, nor the soundest argu- 
ments would suffice. These might be helpful 
elements, but could not be the principal nor 
the decisive factors. 

" I consider it my duty, therefore, to ad- 
dress you with the frankness of an old and 
tried member of your party, who has never 
served directly or indirectly any government 
but yours ; I speak with the loyalty of a per- 
sonal friend, and the disinterestedness of an 
ardent patriot. I make no pretense of show- 
ing you anything new, much less of giving 
you advice ; it would, indeed, be presuming on 
my part to think that I had more talent and 
226 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

more experience than the man who has the 
reputation of being one of the greatest states- 
men of our century. All that I shall attempt 
to do is to express my own opinion, to make 
clear my point of view, which is the result of 
an intimate knowledge of the Mexican people, 
gained through contact with all classes. This 
may be of much value, because conditions 
have kept me entirely free from the strife of 
politics, and have placed me in a position to 
observe at close range that which it would 
be impossible to see from the heights, and 
also to hear that which does not reach you, 
even as a faint echo, on your distant pinnacle 
of power. 

" In so doing, I am fulfilling a duty of con- 
science, which you will rate at its true value, 
and make of my opinions whatever use you 
see fit — surely the best possible use. 

" The Situation 

"It would be a great mistake to suppose 
that the present movement is confined to the 

227 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

working classes. On the contrary, it is wide- 
spread, including directly and indirectly all 
classes of society. Among its members the 
rich are in the minority, the middle class in 
the majority, and the membership from the 
lower classes is increasing under the leader- 
ship of the other two. In joining the move- 
ment, the rich are moved by ambition, the 
middle class by necessity and by the desire to 
satisfy their aspirations, the lower classes 
because they are pursued by wretchedness, 
and because they are always and in all parts 
of the world prone to sedition. 

" An aspect of socialism has been cleverly 
thrown upon this movement by its promoters, 
but the truth is that although it does on its 
social side attack industrialism (not capital), 
its real attack is on the political side against 
the Government. The attitude of the opposi- 
tion press is sufficient proof of this assertion, 
for it has prepared the way for and sup- 
ported this movement; it has mingled with 
the complaints of the workmen the fault- 
228 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

finding of all classes; it has collected and 
published all kinds of news, true and false, 
which could possibly be made to throw 
discredit upon any or all officials of the 
Government. 

"Discontent reigns in almost every state, 
caused chiefly by the fact that certain gov- 
ernors seem to remain in office indefinitely 
and the group which surrounds them does the 
same. This destroys the legitimate ambition 
of all the rest of the citizens, who think, rea- 
sonably enough, that they have a right to a 
direct participation in the management of 
public affairs, either for the realization of 
their own cherished ideals or for the fulfill- 
ment of their ambition to exercise power — 
in a word, to satisfy their own self-esteem. 
Those who have no such ambitions at least 
desire a change, for they think that whatever 
might follow, the change would be better than 
that which they have to-day. 

" With my accustomed frankness, I say to 
you that this feeling has nothing to do with 
229 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

the presidency of the Republic. No one as- 
pires to that office, and no one conspires 
against you. If they have any complaint at 
all, it is that you retain in office men whom 
they condemn as useless, and, in some cases, 
even harmful. They say that Mexican soci- 
ety is at present divided into two castes : one 
the governing class, which seems to be in- 
violable, and for whom power, privileges, 
benefices, business opportunities, titles, and 
honors are reserved ; the other the governed, 
cut off from opportunity, only fitted to be- 
come soldiers, laborers, and slaves, without 
hope, without future, a prey to wretchedness 
and suffering. I do not justify this opinion, 
I merely point it out. 

" These elements of discontent the opposi- 
tion press exploits with skill, making them 
count by spreading them far and wide, and 
using them as the means of maintaining an 
effective campaign. Our opponents succeed 
because there is no one to come forward and 
rectify their exaggerations and contradict 
230 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

their falsehoods. The Government period- 
icals are not strong enough, either in num- 
bers or influence, to counteract the work of 
the opposition press. 

" To return to my theme, I am forced to 
admit that there is considerable discontent 
over the immovability of many officials and 
employees of the Government ; irritability on 
account of the abuse practiced by some, per- 
haps by many of them; impatience on the 
part of those who think that they are justly 
entitled to hold high public positions, and who 
place all their hopes on a change of adminis- 
tration, even if it be only a partial change. 
Then, in addition, there is a feeling of hatred 
against a certain political clique, which has 
been and is still considered (whether rightly 
or wrongly) to be in complete mastery of 
the country and to have exclusive control of 
the public business. It is even supposed to 
have a monopoly of all the most remunera- 
tive fields for private enterprise. There are 
also complaints against the authorities on 
16 231 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

the ground that officials have little or no 
consideration for the public, but are con- 
cerned only in enriching themselves and 
their friends; it must be admitted, however, 
that even in matters of greatest and most 
evident public utility, the opposition party 
sees nothing but private business and oppor- 
tunity for individual enrichment. 
■' " To all these causes of discontent is added 
at the present moment the labor question, soon 
to be followed by agrarian agitation. It is cer- 
tainly true that although the condition of the 
laborer is bad, that of the peon is infinitely 
worse. The only reason that the rights of 
the peon have not already been brought into 
the field is because the industrial laborers, 
being more intelligent, more turbulent, and 
more easily influenced, because they live in 
large groups, constitute much better material 
for the purpose the Socialists have in hand; 
namely, to change the existing order of 
things. Furthermore, they are confident 
that the agricultural laborers will join 
232 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

tliem as soon as the occasion for their help 
arises. 

"Many people think that the opposition 
press is aiming at the profit which the in- 
creased sale of the papers will bring in, but 
this is not true. Underlying their efforts is 
sincerity, and to this fact is due their energy 
and persistency. Many people believe that 
newspapers of this class do not exercise any 
great influence. That is a mistake. They 
find a great number of readers: those who 
buy out of mere curiosity, others whose 
natural malevolence gives them a taste for 
everything which decries those in power; 
and still others who find their own desires 
echoed in these publications. Many people 
believe that these papers can be destroyed 
by persecution, or, at least, brought under 
control; but this is the greatest mistake of 
all. Every persecuted editor will in that way 
be raised to the rank of a Martyr to Liberty ; 
and the hero of the dungeon usually becomes, 
sooner or later, the hero of the barricade. 
233 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

"My Misgivings 

" The accumulated experience of history 
teaches us that when no one looks out for the 
public, the public looks out for itself; and 
when the public looks out for itself, it ceases 
to be a river running in its natural channel, 
and becomes a flood, an inundation. When 
the honest poor rises to vindicate its rights, 
it finds itself isolated, and is, therefore, will- 
ing to accept aid from any quarter. The first 
that offers is always that of the rascal and 
the criminal, for in the overthrow of order 
such men always see a free field for their mis- 
deeds. Experience has also taught us that 
revolutions occur only when circumstances 
are favorable; when the seed of martyrdom 
has been sown upon a ground of conviction. 
This gives moral strength to men, and en- 
dues them with the courage to face death in 
defense of the cause which they have es- 
poused. 

" I have already sketched the outward cir- 
234 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

cumstances and I have pointed out where the 
seed of martyrdom can be found. From this 
exposition it is apparent that we have both 
the latent and the active elements of revolu- 
tion in our midst. It will not do to assert 
that the class affected is insignificant and 
that the manifestations of discontent are 
harmless. Let us remember that when the 
French Revolution broke out, and Louis XVI 
exclaimed * This is merely a street broil,' 
the Duke of Liancourt replied : ' No, Sire, it 
is a revolution.' We all know that the event 
proved the duke to be right. 

" Charges are made daily against the Gov- 
ernment without being met with reasonable 
answers, much less with proofs ; and because 
it is easier to hear one who shouts than 
thousands who hold their peace, the discon- 
tent grows and gradually spreads through- 
out all classes. 

" Nothing is so fatal in politics as the lais- 
sez faire doctrine, for it is interpreted as a 
sign that the administration does not know 
235 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

what to do. When the Governmeut fails to 
answer its critics, the impression gets abroad 
that there is no reasonable explanation to 
offer. If it is true, as Mirabeau said, that 
the silence of the people is the lesson of 
the king, it is equally true, in my opinion, 
that the silence of kings is the justification 
of the charges made against them by the 
people. 

" There is certainly something very grave 
in this cock-sure attitude. Those who look 
with indifference upon the present situation 
are making an unpardonable mistake, and, 
furthermore, are shirking their responsibil- 
ity before history. The slight uprisings 
which have up to the present time taken place 
in Cananea, Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, and 
even in the Capital itself, are forerunners 
of what is being worked up in other cities 
under cover of the labor question; they are 
trials of strength to test the extent and qual- 
ity of the forces which the Socialists have at 
their disposal ; they are experiments to bring 
236 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

out the underlying conditions and show the 
leaders how far they can go. 

" I perceive that there is agitation below 
and alarm above. This condition can only 
be made right by the energetic and patriotic 
action of him who forms the apex of the 
social pyramid. 

" My Opinion as to the Best Way to Over- 
come THE Threatened Danger 

" The only way to meet and destroy the 
idea of revolution is to expose the falsity 
of the base upon which it rests, as I have 
already had the honor of explaining to you 
upon another occasion. But later on, when 
the idea has been so far developed that it has 
already blossomed into aspiration and begun 
to express itself in action, the only way to 
overcome the revolution is to lead it. If 
Louis XVI had understood this truth, and 
had known how to put it into execution, the 
' Great French Revolution ' would have been 
known in history as the ' Great Evolution.' 
237 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

"You have been good enough to entrust 
to me the first part of this undertaking, and 
I have endeavored to carry it out in the best 
manner possible. The results, to another 
more vain and more optimistic than I, might 
well have been considered highly satisfac- 
tory. These results may be summed up as 
follows : 

" 1. We have succeeded in making the op- 
position press, almost to the last periodical, 
understand the danger to which they are 
exposing the country with their revolutionary 
propaganda, and they have moderated their 
attacks against the Government and turned 
their attention to the study of the social ques- 
tions involved, looking at these questions 
from the point of view of moral and eco- 
nomic evolution, and following the course of 
reasoning which I pointed out at the begin- 
ning of my campaign. 

" 2. The laborers who were ' on strike ' 
have thus far followed my advice, which has 
been amplified and strengthened by what 
238 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

other papers have written, even the opposi- 
tion papers themselves. 

"But all this, sir, does not constitute a 
decisive victory; it is only a success of the 
advance guard ; it is not peace, but merely a 
truce. As soon as the first feeling of appre- 
hension is over, and the moment of expec- 
tancy has passed, they will return to the 
struggle with more zeal than ever, if not 
with cruelty and bloodshed. What has been 
accomplished so far is due not to my ability, 
but to yours. The sole cause is the change 
of front which you ordered El Imparcial to 
make : that is, to quit its irritating, dogmatic 
position and its redundant and insulting tone 
of superiority, its uncompromising attitude, 
and its intemperate expressions of ill will. 
This action has been taken as evidence of 
your separation from the Scientific party,* 
and the public has breathed a sigh of relief ; 



iThe party headed by Cabinet Minister Limantour was 
called the " Scientific party " by its founders on the assump- 
tion that they alone possessed the truth. Their idea was to 

239 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

therefore, on reading the declarations and 
promises which I made in the name of the 
Government, the people have begun to hope 
for better things. But they are not to be 
deceived with promises, nor can their de- 
sistance be long counted upon after they 
have once made up their minds to act; nor 
am I capable of resorting to double dealing 
in order to restrain them. 

" For the complete realization of the first 
part of the undertaking which you have been 
good enough to entrust to me, resources are 
lacking. El Imparcial is by no means equal 
to the task single handed. It is already dis- 
credited in the eyes of the people ; everything 
it publishes is looked upon with suspicion. 
As soon as the first moment of surprise is 
over, the salutary effect will vanish, unless 
reenforced by the utterance of other papers 
and supported by convincing, practical action. 

reduce it all to precise formulas. They look with the most 
profound contempt upon the masses, and in fact upon all 
those who do not offer themselves as passive instruments for 
the accomplishment of this party's ambitions. 

240 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

" As to the suggestion in tlie second part 
of my report that you yourself should head 
the movement, I am not in a position even to 
express an opinion, much less to point ont the 
proper course of action. You are so far su- 
perior to me in knowledge and experience 
that I could not think of such presumption, 
but I do consider it my duty, sir, to beg you 
not to look upon the affair of Cananea with 
indifference, but to accede to the public de- 
mand, to break your silence, to investigate, 
and to demonstrate that the Government was 
fully justified in its action, thus dissipating 
doubts, calming fears, and satisfying public 
opinion. In addition, I am sure it would be 
well to effectually countenance the laborers 
in so far as their demands are just; to ap- 
point a commission composed of five com- 
petent men to study the labor question and 
to make such suggestions as they deem ad- 
visable. This would suffice to calm agitation 
for the moment, to inspire confidence in the 
Government, and hope that the precarious 
241 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

situation of the laboring classes would be 
improved. 

" We are in the midst of a period of agita- 
tion, and it would be a great mistake to ignore 
the fact. Such periods are fertile in systems, 
projects, and plans of all kinds, especially 
harmful kinds. 

" I do not believe that public opinion is 
always right, but I think that it should always 
be taken into account and satisfied, especially 
at present, because there exists a decided 
tendency to disregard a decree, unless its 
justice be fully demonstrated, or force be 
used to compel obedience. The latter method 
is the more efficacious for the time being, 
but it always carries with it a reaction, 
more or less violent in proportion to the 
amount of repressive force which has been 
exerted. 

" I trust you will pardon the liberty I have 

taken in speaking so plainly and at such 

length upon matters which are beyond my 

competence. For thus trespassing upon your 

242 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

overburdened time, I beg you to forgive me, 
and I feel sure that your kindness and good 
judgment recognize my loyalty as a member 
of your party, my sincerity as a friend, and 
my love for our common country. 

" (Signed) E. de Zayas Enriquez. 
" Mexico, August 3, 1906." 

It is undeniable that the country is passing 
through a period of agitation and uncertain- 
ty. Almost every one in Mexico who has 
any power uses it and abuses it, and the 
cowed public submits. From the car con- 
ductor up, everyone is permitted to de- 
spise the public and treat it tyrannically. 
The manager of a manufacturing estab- 
lishment is a feudal lord and his agents 
treat the working classes as if they were 
slaves. 

In May of the present year (1907) a Mex- 
ican paper published a long letter addressed 
to the President by a workingman named 
Jose Neira. It was written concerning a 
243 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

strike. In it occurred the following re- 
marks : 

" At the present time, although the labor- 
ers and their employers are intimately con- 
nected by ties of interest, they are very 
far apart. The capitalists are very high up ; 
we are very low down ; and between them and 
us there exist as the only intermediaries a 
multitude of ' go-betweens,' who exploit those 
above to as great an extent as those below, 
deceiving both. These ' go-betweens ' form 
a regular stairway, from the man who sweeps 
out the office to the manager-in-chief. They 
transform all that passes through their 
hands, either up or down, to suit their own 
ends. In the factory, everything is for sale. 
For five dollars the * boss ' will give three 
looms to the man who has two, four to the 
man who has three. For one or two dollars, 
the ' correitero ' will credit you with good 
marks; for twenty-five cents the inspector 
will fail to report; for the same amount, he 
244 



PEESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

will allow smoking and the floor sweeper will 
change all the broken reels, bobbins, and 
spools. 

" We laborers are obliged by the * bosses,' 
under penalty of losing our job, to take one 
number at least in each of their raffles, and 
they have one every week ; to apply for funds 
which they loan at the rate of twenty-five 
per cent a week, whether we need the 
money or not; and to pretend that we are 
deaf when they make love to our sisters, 
our daughters, our nieces, and even our 
wives. These 'bosses,' who in turn are 
* bossed' by other employees higher up, 
are among us sort of sultans, who hold our 
money and even our honor at their beck and 
call. Woe to him who repels or tries to 
thwart the amorous caprices of one of these 
gentlemen! They will fine him and punish 
him for several weeks, and finally the ' cor- 
reitero ' will come, full of pompous majesty, 
to whisper in his ear: * Don't be a fool. 
Don't carry on so with the " boss " ! What's 
245 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

the use of getting fined and punished ? Don't 
you know that he can consign you to the 
army?' It is true; the will of these man- 
darins is law. All they have to do is to in- 
form the management that the person in 
question is a terrible Socialist who stirs up 
strikes, and it's all up with that particular 
laborer." 

This description is a true picture of the 
condition of affairs in almost all the states of 
the Federation, and the bitter feeling of the 
laboring classes is apparent in nearly every 
town in Mexico. 

I remember that in 1875, when we were 
making preparations for the Revolution of 
Tuxtepec, which was to place General Diaz 
in the presidential chair, I published a book 
entitled " The Helots of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury." On page 117 and following pages I 
said : " Those who know the inner history of 
the France of 1847 and of the Mexico of 1875 
must be surprised to see how many points 
246 



PRESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

of similarity there are between the two coun- 
tries during these two epochs. 

" In the France of that day as in our coun- 
try to-day, peace apparently reigned, and the 
ministers, satellites of M. Guizot, could say, 
as the cabinet members of Senor Lerdo de 
Tejada might have, that the public security 
was in no wise disturbed, that the budget of 
state was covered with perfect regularity, 
that the eighty-seven prefects of His Majesty 
exercised the functions of their offices with as 
much independence (?) as could the twenty- 
seven governors of the constitutional states 
of our Federation. 

" There was a veritable plethora of riches 
and well-being; railroads were built in all 
directions ; the Minister of War in France, as 
the Minister of "War here, ordered the con- 
struction of battleships, not only in the na- 
tional shipyards, but also in England. The 
cry of the memorable administration of 
Guizot was * Get rich ! ' 

"At first sight, the man who cannot see 
17 247 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

farther than the outside of a question would 
believe that the material condition of France 
at that time was the best possible. In that 
country, as in our pseudo-republic, scan- 
dalous fortunes were made in a day, the 
origin of which no one could explain. Usury 
and shameful speculation was the order of 
the day ; the health of the country was threat- 
ened by the growth of a terrible cancer; 
the condition of affairs can best be de- 
scribed by the biblical expression, 'whited 
sepulcher.' 

" In the France of 1847 there was a priv- 
ileged class which formed what was called 
* the legal country.' For the members of this 
class were reserved the public offices, the rich 
sinecures, the flattery of the ' powers that be,' 
the attentions of the ministers, honorable 
decorations, invitations to the Tuileries, 
handshakes of the ' Bourgeois king ' ; in a 
word, it was the reign of the grocers, as the 
people have called it; only members of the 
ring took part in public affairs; they alone 
248 



PEESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

were called, and consequently they alone 
were chosen. 

" But while they were talking of the dances 
and royal entertainments which 'Philippe 
Egalite' was lavishing upon his proteges, 
the great majority of the law-abiding citizens 
who had honest ambitions and were willing 
to work murmured against this bureaucratic 
and self-centered government, which took no 
thought for the future (of France), but only 
for their own present advantage and that of 
their hangers-on ; and whatever business they 
undertook was merely for the aggrandize- 
ment of some speculator. But the tempest 
was slowly gathering, drawing together the 
scattered elements of discontent from all 
sides. 

" The very thing which happened there 
is taking place among us here to-day. At 
first, only suppressed murmurings from be- 
low, then open protest that the revenues of 
state should be squandered in sumptuous 
banquets while the public goes hungry; that 
249 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

money should be squandered on perfectly use- 
less, if not perfectly ridiculous scientific 
expeditions, while the masses clamor for 
schools; gold braid and gorgeous trimmings 
to set off a gallant army, while the wretched 
people with difficulty find rags to cover their 
nakedness. 

" In the France of 1847, as in the Mexico 
of 1875, public indignation burned against 
the adventurers who had succeeded in put- 
ting themselves in control of the situation; 
the people hurled their scorn against an im- 
moral government, which was hiding under 
a mantle of virtue, and had brought every- 
thing down to a purely material basis. 

" What was the result of this brewing op- 
position! Toward the end of 1847 the storm 
began to darken the horizon of * Philippe 
Egalite,' and during the following year burst 
with fury as menacing as that which in 1793 
overthrew the worm-eaten throne of Louis 
XVI. At that time, Louis Philippe recog- 
nized the rottenness of the situation and had 
250 



PEESENT CONDITIONS IN MEXICO 

the sense to abdicate and retire to England. 
* In Mexico they never abdicate. Our rulers, 
like the " Old Guard," may die, but never 
surrender.' " 

This is what I said in 1875, and I notice 
that others are repeating the same thing to- 
day in a somewhat different form; taking 
another epoch in France to point the par- 
allel, that of the last days of the Third 
Empire and the final catastrophe at Sedan. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE LAST PHASE OF THE EVOLUTION OF PBES- 
IDENT DIAZ 

1HAVE described, though in a sketchy 
manner, the whole public life of Pres- 
ident Diaz, and the evolution of his char- 
acter, an evolution which has not traveled 
in straight lines. Nature has no straight 
lines, and no evolution ever follows the direct 
course, but moves in a constantly ascending 
spiral. 

The query naturally arises in one's mind: 
Plas President Diaz stopped growing? Does 
he actually present to us to-day the last 
stage of his development, the final form in 
which he will pass into history? 

It may seem that prudence should counsel 
me to propound this question fairly and 
therewith end my labor. But that would be 
to destroy the fruit of all my work. For I 
consider my task positive, and if I should 
252 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

end it by simply raising this question, the 
results of my investigation would be shroud- 
ed with doubt, and, therefore, largely neg- 
ative. 

I am well aware that every man is a tend- 
ency, a suggestion, never a complete ex- 
pression. But I am equally sure that the law 
of each man's being, as well on the spiritual 
as on the moral plane, is to fulfill the func- 
tions which his own nature prescribes. Pres- 
ident Diaz is cast in a mold which compels 
achievement of such a high order that he 
cannot stop with that which he has already 
accomplished, for it has affected only the 
material side of Mexico. 

History does not furnish us with a single 
example of a man who, after gaining per- 
manent possession of the supreme power, 
voluntarily returned to the people, either all 
at once or by degrees, the liberties which he 
had taken from them. Nations never shake 
off the yoke except by revolution. They must 
by their own courage and heroism re-conquer 
253 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

what they have lost through indolence, cow- 
ardice, or the desire to gain some immediate 
advantage at the expense of their future wel- 
fare. But President Diaz cannot and ought 
not to allow himself to be classed in this 
category. Because if he did he would be a 
contradiction to himself, he would destroy 
his prestige, and descend to the level of an 
ordinary tyrant, an ambitious upstart, who 
had deceived the people and defrauded them 
of their highest and most legitimate aspira- 
tions. 

In order to complete his work he does not 
need the conditions that surround a mytho- 
logical demigod, but simply those of a man 
inspired by patriotism, righteousness, honor, 
and respect for his own reputation. It is 
to me inconceivable that President Diaz can 
be a hard, unyielding man, actuated only by 
selfish ambition, cold and heartless, " a bronze 
statue upon a granite pedestal." For that 
would prove him to be, in the last analysis^ 
a man capable of raising to his memory a 
254 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

monument of curses upon a pedestal of ig- 
nominy. In thinking him incapable of this, 
I am not founding my belief solely upon my 
aspirations for my country, nor upon my ad- 
miration for the hero of this biography, nor 
yet upon my desire that General Diaz may 
pass into history universally venerated, but 
upon the belief that, deducing the unknown 
from the known, General Diaz will feel him- 
self compelled to carry out that which duty 
so imperiously commands. Although Diaz 
may have made mistakes (and it is certain 
enough that he has done so), I do not be- 
lieve him capable of conunitting the awful 
crime of treason to his country. 

For this reason I counsel him with frank- 
ness and with sincere loyalty to shortly be- 
come the head of the revolution which is be- 
ginning to stir in the soul of Mexico, at last 
awaking from her long sleep. I adjure him 
to lead the movement at once, for although it 
is beginning very timidly, it has, neverthe- 
less, made a beginning, and if he takes the 
255 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

initiative now, he can transform the move- 
ment from revolution into evolution, nay, 
even more, into salvation, and for himself 
stamp the achievement of the statesman with 
the seal of greatness. 

Many people will laugh at my having sev- 
eral times referred to a revolution in Mexico, 
for they consider this impossible, in view of 
the fact that peace is, in their estimation, so 
firmly established, and the people so domi- 
nated by the yoke that they are incapable of 
even dreaming to shake it off. As long as 
President Diaz holds the reins of the Gov- 
ernment it is practically certain that things 
will remain as they are, both because of his 
overwhelming prestige, and because of the 
terror inspired by his practice of drowning 
in blood any attempt at uprising. The last 
time this happened was only a few months 
ago, when the strikers of Orizaba were shot 
down by General Eosilino Martinez, accord- 
ing to the custom established on June 25, 
1879. But once the pressure of his iron 
256 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

hand is removed, the presence of the inflam- 
mable material, now lying hidden on every 
side, will be revealed, and the whole country 
will be ablaze. This everyone knows but no 
one dares to confess. 

At the present moment the financial sitna- 
tion is bad all over the world, but in Mexico 
it is frightful. The greatest lack of con- 
fidence exists in the money market. Banks 
are changed from credit-giving institutions 
into places of hoarding. The feeling of in- 
stability is general. We are assured that 
there is much money in the country, but that 
those who have it do not allow it to get into 
circulation. Why is this? Because the cap- 
italist is nothing if not far-sighted; he sees 
the storm brewing before the professional 
politician is alive to the situation, and he is 
afraid that his money will be seized by some 
one and hoarded if he puts it into circulation. 

All classes see with disgust the immense 
sums that are spent to beautify the Capital 
and to furnish large profits to the ring, when 
257 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

this money is so badly needed for the neces- 
sities upon which the very future of the coun- 
try depends, such as the irrigation of vast 
stretches of waste land and immigration mat- 
ters, which have been shamefully neglected 
under the pretext that there were no funds 
for this purpose; and this, too, when it is 
evident that there is enough and to spare for 
the construction of palaces, theaters, prom- 
enades, and for sumptuous entertainments 
which no one approves. 

Physical law controls actions, but moral 
law imposes duties, and he who fails to ful- 
fill his duties, whether from ignorance, in- 
difference, or lack of ability, must be 
considered a failure, even though he may 
have accomplished much and rendered great 
service in other directions. 

To-day more than ever the life of Mexico 

is bound up in the life of President Diaz. For 

he alone possesses the key to the situation; 

he and he only can convert into " organic 

258 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

peace " the " mechaiiical peace " which he has 
imposed with such skill and power. And I 
must insist, in the face of all that interested 
flattery can say to the contrary, or con- 
victed error assert with sophistry, our peace 
is " mechanical." The mere fact that every- 
thing in Mexico depends upon the will of a 
single individual is sufficient proof of my 
assertion — a single individual who controls 
public affairs in their entirety, down to the 
minutest detail; a single individual who can 
make or mar reputations, lives, and fortunes, 
because all are forced to consult him, obey 
him, and believe, or appear to believe, what- 
ever he says on his mere word, without ask- 
ing for proofs or explanations. 

If President Diaz should happen to dis- 
appear suddenly, paying the tribute which 
all must pay to death, it would throw Mexico 
into the worst state of confusion that our 
country has ever experienced. 

In a few words, I will try to explain my 
meaning. We are all at sea politically, be- 
259 



POEFIRIO DIAZ 

cause for many years in Mexico it has been 
looked upon as a virtue, or perhaps as a ne- 
cessity, to avoid taking an interest in politics. 
We are, therefore, without any strong, recog- 
nized successor, anyone with an established 
reputation, because for many years there has 
been nothing in Mexico worthy the name of 
popular elections. It is true that Senor Don 
Ramon Corral figures as vice-president, but 
it is equally true, as all the world knows, 
that he does not owe his position to popular 
election, but to the direct appointment of 
President Diaz. Senor Corral is unknown 
in politics. He may be an exceptional man, 
but no one is sure of it, because he has not 
demonstrated his ability; in fact, he has had 
no chance to show his qualities. 

In June, 1904, at a National Convention, 
called ostensibly for the purpose of nominat- 
ing candidates for president and vice-pres- 
ident, the Hon. Ignacio Mariscal, Secretary 
of Foreign Relations, was put up by some 
delegates for the second place. But one of tlio 
260 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

members of the convention announced from 
the speakers' desk that he had been " in- 
structed to present as official candidate " for 
the vice-presidency Senor Don Ramon Cor- 
ral, Secretary of the Interior. Seiior Corral 
was nominated by the convention. 

In this connection, Senor Mariscal wrote, 
in reply to a letter from his supporters, a 
statement (on July 20th) which was pub- 
lished by all the papers. In it he expressed 
himself with his usual frankness, saying that 
if he had foreseen that his name was going 
to be proposed he would have made every ef- 
fort to prevent it. He added : 

" I never have aspired to the vice-pres- 
idency, for reasons which I will explain fur- 
ther on, nor would it have heen possible for 
my candidacy to succeed against that of 
Senor Corral, which had already heen cut and 
dried before the convention. 

" Already it is evident that the candidacy 
of the Secretary of the Interior has much 
more support and probability of success at 
261 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

the national elections than it had at the time 
of the convention, although the evidences 
were many and great at that time. For to- 
day he has the declared approval of the Pres- 
ident to count upon, as was shown in the 
speech Diaz made at the National Conven- 
tion, in reference to his own candidacy and 
that of Senor Corral. PRESIDENT DIAZ'S 
OPINION, THAT OPINION WHICH HAS 
ON SO MANY OCCASIONS PROVED ITS 
EFFECTIVENESS, UNSUPPORTED BY 
COMPULSION, MERELY BECAUSE OF 
THE ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE WHICH 
HE HAS BEEN ABLE TO INSPIRE, 
CONSTITUTES THE MOST CERTAIN 
GUARANTEE THAT THE CITIZEN IN 
WHOSE FAVOR HE HAS DECLARED 
WILL BE ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT. 
It would have been foolish of me, therefore, 
with my experience of years, to expect any 
votes to speak of in the election for the vice- 
presidency, a position which I repeat I have 
no desire to fill." 

262 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

Bead as you will the words of this honor- 
able and sincere man, you will always come 
to the same conclusion, the conclusion that I 
have pronounced at the beginning. 

Not long ago (in fact, in this very year, 
1907) the United States press took up the 
question of a successor to President Diaz. 
Some papers predicted that Senor Liman- 
tour, the Secretary of the Treasury, would 
succeed him ; others mentioned Senor Corral ; 
and still others mentioned an unknown as 
his probable successor. These articles caused 
great alarm in Mexico, and among the papers 
at the Capital which took up the affair with 
fervor there was one hardy enough to assert 
that the successor to President Diaz would 
be the " LAW." 

I can say with all sincerity that I have not 
the slightest idea what the author of this 
riddle was driving at. Who is the " law " 
and what is the "law"? This amounts to 
a justification of what I have said above, 
because if El Diario, the paper to which I 
18 263 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

refer, tliiiiks that Senor Corral is the legit- 
imate successor of the President, as things 
stand to-day, it should have made its 
statement categorical, considering that the 
" LAW," even when it is written in capitals, 
is a thing, and that things cannot succeed 
persons, for there cannot be any Govern- 
ment except through the instrumentality of 
individuals. Moreover, in the last analysis, 
the " Law " in Mexico is General Diaz, and 
will continue to be as long as he lives ; but will 
cease to be when he dies. 

At the present time, the Liberal party is 
disorganized, or perhaps one might better 
say that it has disappeared ; for it no longer 
exists as a Liberal party, properly speaking ; 
while the Clerical party is better organized 
than ever, and is possessed of far greater re- 
sources than it had at the time when it was 
forced, as a measure of political necessity, to 
disentail the property of the clergy. It is 
true that this party has no leader of repute, 
but we all know by experience that necessity 
264 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

always creates a leader. The situation is 
such, then, that we may well fear that a re- 
action is in store, and that it will precipitate 
an uprising as sanguinary, or perhaps even 
more sanguinary, than the Revolution of 
1857-1860, because the Liberals, the Radi- 
cals, and the Jacobins will unite to fight the 
common enemy. 

But looking at the case in the most favor- 
able light possible, and supposing that the 
President should die without completing the 
evolution which we all anxiously await, and 
that Corral should come into power without 
opposition or mishap of any kind, and with 
the tacit or expressed consent of all the peo- 
ple, how would he govern? To return at 
once to the constitutional regime, that is, to 
respect the spirit and conform to the letter 
of the Constitution, would be difficult, because 
it would be necessary to begin by making 
radical changes in the direction of decentral- 
ization throughout the administrative de- 
partment. This would be sure to cause dis- 
265 



PORFIBIO DIAZ 

content among all those who have become 
accustomed to government according to the 
present system. 

To continue according to the existing plan 
would be dangerous in the extreme, because 
no matter how talented the new president 
might be, he would lack the prestige of Pres- 
ident Diaz, and fail in consequence. The 
present system is like the arms of Achilles, 
so ponderous that no one else could support 
the weight; Patroclus himself was borne 
down by it. 

Another and most important factor in the 
problem, a factor which would stagger the 
boldest, is our public debt ; or, more correct- 
ly speaking, our foreign debt. It amounts to 
hundreds of millions of dollars and requires 
an enormous sum to pay the interest; a sum 
which must be forthcoming with perfect regu- 
larity, not only because the reputation of the 
country demands it, and because we are un- 
der formal contract, but also because any 
lapse would imperil the credit upon which 
266 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

we are living, disturb our friendly relations 
with other countries, and therewith our free- 
dom from anxiety, lest our national inde- 
pendence be jeopardized by a foreign inter- 
vention or a degrading protectorate. I, for 
one, have not the least doubt that revolution 
would bring upon us unavoidably these un- 
happy consequences. We see, then, ihat if 
President Diaz should die, leaving affairs as 
they are to-day, we should find ourselves face 
to face with this terrifying dilemma: either 
hopeless political slavery, or revolution, with 
the danger of losing our separate nation- 
ality. Either horn of the dilemma would 
lead to equally disastrous consequences for 
Mexico. 

President Diaz ought not to count upon 
another reelection. His present term of 
office expires on December 1, 1910; that is to 
say, when President Diaz will be more than 
eighty years old, and it is natural to suppose 
that at that age it would be impossible for 
him to continue governing. Therefore, he 
267 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

must accomplish in his present term all that 
he hopes to bring about. There is no time for 
delay. 

The President has probably not felt him- 
self growing old, but unquestionably he must 
have done so, for all men are mortal, and 
although life has no fixed limits, his death 
cannot be very far off, judging from the 
President's age, his stupendous labors, and 
the normal duration of human life, under 
such conditions. General Diaz may not be 
aware of his approaching end, but, like every 
one living, he must be traveling inevitably 
toward death. 

It is impossible that our illustrious ruler 
can have any idea of leaving us such a polit- 
ical heritage, one whose necessary outcome 
would be fraudulent bankruptcy, bankruptcy 
of principle, bankruptcy of private and pub- 
lic interest, a condition worse than chaos, for 
chaos is always looked upon as a beginning, 
and this would be an ending. 

That a monarch so corrupt as Louis XV 
268 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

should exclaim: " After me the deluge! " can 
be understood, but it is unthinkable that a 
man of honor like President Diaz should 
leave us in his will any such legacy! It is 
unthinkable, I repeat, that President Diaz 
should do this, because in that event the 
world, upon seeing our disasters, would 
rightly quote to us the words of the Prophet 
to the effect that we were reaping our just 
deserts for having embraced ideas of com- 
promising peace in the hour of our ex- 
tremity. 

No, it is not possible that President Diaz 
intends to have us pay for the temporary ad- 
vantages of peace the price of national ex- 
tinction. 

General Diaz has founded a school, as 
it were, for almost all the South American 
presidents are trying to imitate him by cur- 
tailing public liberties and endeavoring to 
become autocratic. From him they have 
learned the methods which lead to dictator- 
269 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

ship. This is an undeniable fact, and because 
of it America, perhaps the whole world, is 
watching to see what will be the outcome of 
President Diaz's administration. If his evolu- 
tion ends by organizing liberty as an effective 
means of converting arbitrarily enforced 
order into organic peace, as I have called it, 
his example will be salutary, because it will 
show those who are attempting to create 
autocracies the only way to fulfill patriot- 
ically and honorably the obligation which 
accompanies power. If he does not do this, 
whether for lack of noble purpose or for 
lack of time, his example will also be salu- 
tary to the people, because they will learn 
at our expense never for any reason to en- 
trust the destinies of their country to the 
hands of a single man, no matter how high- 
minded he may be, nor how conspicuous the 
services he may have rendered in times of 
danger. 

In either event, I trust that the public and 
their rulers will not forget the lesson. 
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LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

It is related that Napoleon once visited the 
Jesuit convent in Eome, and that the general 
of the order acting as his guide showed him 
all the different departments, explaining the 
purposes and methods of each, and pointing 
out the suitability of the instruction as a 
preparation for the special work which each 
group was destined to carry forward. All 
were divided into groups, devoted to differ- 
ent branches of science and art. Finally, 
they came to an immense hall which par- 
ticularly attracted the attention of the Em- 
peror, because the pupils in it looked so 
very unintelligent. Unable to imagine for 
what purpose such youths could be destined, 
he asked his guide: "What on earth those 
stupid boys could be trained to do ? " The 
imperturbable general replied : " To satisfy 
the inexhaustible demand for martyrs to the 
Japanese." 

General Diaz certainly possesses this ad- 
mirable faculty for taking advantage of the 
special aptitudes of each individual, and 
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PORFIRIO DIAZ 

assigning to him the position which best fits 
his capacity. For the very reason that I rec- 
ognize in him this distinguished attribute, I 
do not believe that he has created such an 
enormous department for " Martyrs to the 
Japanese " that he intends to place in it the 
whole population of Mexico. Nor do I be- 
lieve that he has any idea of continuing the 
Government after his death, not in his own 
person, for that would be impossible, but 
through the medium of a man imposed upon 
the nation by him to carry on the work from 
the point where death interposed. I do not 
believe this is possible, for President Diaz is 
a strong character, and would naturally wish 
to complete his own undertaking. Therefore 
it is unthinkable that he should intend to give 
to another the glory of perfecting his work. 
Nor can I conceive that he has wished to rear 
an edifice at the cost of so much sacrifice, only 
to have it fall as the tomb closes over him, 
overthrown by the inexperience or the in- 
capacity of a successor appointed by himself. 
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LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

For in the first case the fortunate successor 
would share in his glory, and President Diaz 
would have deferred his own glorification 
until after death ; in the second case, the dis- 
astrous work of his successor would obscure 
the memory of the " Hero of Peace," a title 
which is much more coveted by the Presi- 
dent than the one which he has already so 
justly earned, " Hero of "War." There is no 
way for him to seal his career with golden 
opinions and to assure his title to the venera- 
tion of the nation and to a lasting place in 
history but that of converting "mechanical 
peace " into " organic peace," founding it 
upon Liberty, and remembering always that 
" PEACE IMPLIES NOT ONLY OEDEE, 
BUT FEEEDOM." 

It is meet to " render unto CaBsar the things 
which are Caesar's," and unto the people that 
which is theirs by right. 

The standards of the people must be raised 
and invigorated, for a sound, active public 
opinion is indispensable as a basis of insti- 
273 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

tutions and nations. Where this element is 
lacking, there is no people, in the true sig- 
nification of the word, but only a degraded 
multitude. Liberty attaches man to the 
soil more than material possessions. Con- 
sequently peoples deprived of liberty are 
ripe for conquest; having nothing to lose, 
they make no effort to defend themselves, 
but allow a foreign power to enslave them. 
Such is the effect of tyranny. Peoples thus 
pacified, who accept order without liberty, 
are like the ox, fit for service, but not for 
the perpetuation of their national existence. 

There are peoples, like the English, who 
respect law, but repudiate authority; there 
are peoples, like most of the Latins, who re- 
spect authority, but despise the law. We 
Mexicans must be brought to understand that 
the law is above all and that our first duty 
is to obey it and make others obey it; that 
when a government over-rides the law it be- 
comes an outlaw and a public enemy. 

We must restore in all its fullness the 
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LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

true conception of citizenship and make it 
understood that there is no title of nobility 
to compare with that of citizen, because class 
distinctions always imply, on the one hand, 
relative superiority and, on the other, abject 
inferiority; while citizenship implies free 
men in a free country with equal rights, 
equal obligations, and absolute equality be- 
fore the law. 

We must also make the people understand 
that the political rights which the law con- 
cedes and guarantees to them are at the same 
time sacred duties which they must fulfill 
religiously, under pain of being considered 
traitors to their country ; for he who does not 
take his part in political affairs, fails to go 
to the polls, or permits trickery and falsifi- 
cation of the returns, commits a crime which 
injures him, and is all the more culpable be- 
cause it carries with it consequences fatal to 
the whole of society. 

It is indispensable that the people who 
work and pay the taxes, whose resources 
275 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

constitute the national wealth, should freely 
elect in the manner prescribed by the Con- 
stitution their representatives, and through 
them have absolute power to decide how 
heavy the burden of taxation should be, what 
proportion should be raised from each field, 
and in what manner the taxes should be col- 
lected and distributed. 

We must blot out every principle of 
oligarchy, put a stop to the system of legis- 
lative commissions, and eliminate every trace 
of autocracy. We must put into practice the 
principle that the power of government does 
not reside in the Executive, but that it is 
exercised jointly by the Executive, Legis- 
lative, and Judicial branches, not as three 
distinct powers, but as three phases or man- 
ifestations of a single united Government. 
Each branch has its field of action clearly 
defined by the Constitution; to the Legis- 
lative department is assigned the power to 
make the laws, to the Executive that of 
putting them into force, and to the Judi- 
276 



LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

cial that of seeing that the laws are complied 
with. 

It is advisable to leave the way open for 
the exercise of all aspirations and all apti- 
tudes, and not to direct the latter, nor to 
encourage the former in an arbitrary or 
capricious manner, injurious to the dignity 
of the individual and prejudicial to the best 
interests of the nation. It is wise to concede 
the greatest liberty to the expression of 
ideas. That public which cannot complain 
openly will conspire in secret. To gag the 
political orator is to arm the political assas- 
sin. In those countries in which the press 
is restricted, we find demoralization due to 
the fact that the privileged incendiary goes 
free, while the honest man who raises the 
cry of alarm is imprisoned. 

Another anomaly common in countries de- 
void of freedom is that it is sometimes con- 
venient for an office-seeker to expose his 
vices and always dangerous for any citizen 
to show his virtues. For this reason it has 
277 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

always been the part of wisdom in times of 
tyranny to avoid exhibiting too much intel- 
ligence or too high a sense of honor. For 
just as nothing is so exasperating to the 
millionaire as a man upon whom his millions 
make no impression, so it happens that to a 
despot nothing seems so worthy of punish- 
ment as a character or an intelligence su- 
perior to his own. Any system of politics is 
bad in which the term society is applied only 
to the small group of people who act accord- 
ing to the ideas of the ruler ; the term people 
to those who are sufficiently docile to allow 
themselves to be managed, while to the rest 
is applied such depreciative epithets as popu- 
lace, horde, rabble. It is necessary to accept 
the people in its entirety, to try to achieve 
the greatest good for the greatest number, 
without entering into political distinctions or 
metaphysical subtleties. 

To accomplish the good results outlined 
above, there are only two methods : evolution 

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LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

and revolution. Ee volution can be put into 
practice only by the people ; evolution can be 
realized, in this case, only by President Diaz. 
For him there is nothing easier. His wish 
alone would be sufficient. All that is needed 
is to have him put the Constitution into force, 
slowly but surely, in order that the people 
may become accustomed to the exercise of 
their rights. It would be well to begin by 
permitting the people, nay, even obliging 
them, if necessary, to elect their municipal 
authorities, guaranteeing to them the invio- 
lability of their vote, and protecting them 
against the vengeance of the local authori- 
ties. Let us do the same with each state 
governorship, as the term of office expires, 
in order that the citizens may freely elect 
whomever they consider most worthy to 
occupy this distinguished position. When 
the time for election of representatives, 
senators, magistrates, and public officials of 
all kinds arrives, let us inaugurate the same 
truly popular elections. 
19 379 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

Let the President return to tlie Legisla- 
ture all its prerogatives, and never ask for 
nor accept extraordinary powers to be used 
in any branch of the Government, unless, of 
course, in case of serious danger to the main- 
tenance of order, or to the perpetuation of our 
institutions. Greater scope should be given 
to personal initiative and to individual am- 
bition, in order that each one may show 
his abilities, develop them, and thus become 
of greater value to the country. The people 
should be free to express their opinions in 
writing, in print, or orally, and the country 
should no longer have forced upon it a sub- 
sidized press. Public ideals should be allowed 
to grow again, and every one should be per- 
mitted to work for the ideals in which he 
believes, without hindrance, and with the sole 
condition that he shall not transgress the 
law. The president should not maintain any 
ring of personal favorites, but should ally 
himself to the people. 

This is little, but it is all that is needed. 
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LAST PHASE OF DIAZ'S EVOLUTION 

The President has only to say to the catalep- 
tic people, " Arise and walk." In doing this, 
General Diaz would seal his career with 
golden opinions, and assure to his people a 
future of peace, liberty, and happiness. If 
his life is spared, as I hope with all my heart 
that it may be, there is yet time in the three 
remaining years of his presidency to bring 
about the evolution which I have pointed out. 

I have now reached the end of my labors. 
The purpose of this book has restricted me 
to a brief, sympathetic treatment of the 
causes which have brought about Mexico's 
present condition; but the reader will find 
detailed information and an exhaustive anal- 
ysis in another work, which I shall shortly 
give to the press. 

From what I have written, it is evident that 
as yet it is not possible to make up the Pres- 
ident's account. Whether the final balance 
will be in his favor or against him will de- 
pend upon his future actions. President Diaz 
281 



PORFIRIO DIAZ 

has it in his power to pass into history as 
the " FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY," a title 
which up to the present time Washington 
alone has deserved, or to leave the reputation 
of a man who, in spite of great ability, 
strayed from the way, disappointed public 
confidence, and brought to naught the sac- 
rifices of his fellow-citizens. Even in that 
event, it may be that flattery and intellectual 
superficiality, seeing only the outside of 
things, will still contend that President Diaz 
was the creator of a nation. History will 
make the inexorable reply, " He created a 
nation, but he destroyed a people." 

New York, June, 1907, 

THE END 



3W7 



